The Second Night Fury (2017 edition)
by The Elegant Night Fury
Summary: **Slated for major editing. (what can I say? The story needs it.)** After a traumatic crash on an unknown island separates Hiccup from Toothless, things happen fast. The discovery of a female Night Fury, a bloodthirsty Monstrous Nightmare, and of course, overly dramatic encounters. Mild violence ahead.
1. Chapter 1

Ch. 1

Authors note: I do not own How to Train your Dragon or anything related to it. I wrote this because I wanted to.

 **This is an updated story using the same premise and much of the same plot and characters as "TSNF" but is not the same story overall.**

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 ****Update 8/19/2018. I will be doing edits to improve the readability soon, expect a polished, easier to read version around the end of September or mid October. ****

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It was a peaceful day; the silence was broken only by the cheers from a Viking and his Night Fury out on an early morning flight. Hiccup was attempting to test out the additions he'd made to his flight suit, and Toothless never liked it when Hiccup did, it usually ended in one of them crashing spectacularly. "Toothless? Stay me with bud" Hiccup said feeling his dragon slowing. Toothless = shook off the concerns about the flight suit to focus on the task at hand, momentarily at least. He was not about to let Hiccup's inability to fly without help interfere with his relaxation time. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy being the Alpha, it was just difficult at times when he was "the Alpha" first and not "Toothless."

"Toothless? I'm ready to see how the improvements hold up." Just like that the worries came back, Toothless kept quiet knowing his opinion wouldn't change Hiccup's mind at this point. So it was, seconds later, the tailfin lock was engaged, and Hiccup was gone. The Night Fury had every confidence that Hiccup could handle himself when he was on the ground but seriously doubted his ability to fly alone. A slight twinge of panic rippled thru Toothless as he realized Hiccup was no longer within his view. Toothless dove down into the clouds in search of Hiccup, he found him not in the mists; but below them. Hiccup, unaware that Toothless had lost track of him, was not expecting his dragon to pluck him out of the sky and carry him above the clouds.

Hiccup tried to free himself but had no success. A disgruntled snort was the only response Hiccup received to his panicked movements. A few seconds later with Hiccup still trying to free himself, Toothless loosened his hold, putting an end to the struggling. "Ok, bud you made your point. Can I get back on now?" Toothless further loosened his hold, "Wait! I meant—" Toothless chuckled at this. Toothless swooped below the cloud layer once more in search of a flat landing space but instead found a smattering of rock pillars unseen from inside the clouds. Toothless, unable to dodge them, crashed into the first one unharmed but the second rock pillar hit him on his head knocking the dragon unconscious, his claws went slack instantly. Hiccup was beyond panicking as he watched Toothless haphazardly crash thru another rock formation in an unnatural and elongated manner, while he, fell towards the ocean away from his dragon.

Toothless regained consciousness with severe and very sharp pain all over his body. The worst of it remained centralized around his head and left wing, however, it was hard to tell thru the copious amounts of pain for sure. He was, unconscious a few seconds later from the pain, and wouldn't regain consciousness for quite some time. The second time he woke up to the same blinding pain, and yet it was still different somehow. He didn't have time to find out why it was different as he was unconscious again, staying awake only a few seconds longer than before. This process repeated itself three more times, each time the pain decreased and his time conscious increased. The fifth time he awoke though, he felt something new, something other than pain—stone. The pain had reduced so much he could form intelligent thoughts. After a minute of pinpointing where it seemed like the pain was coming from, Toothless attempted to open his eyes; he found he could not, this quickly became his sole focus. His efforts, after a time, become such a drain on him that he fell unconscious again. The cycle would've continued for much longer if not for the rough nudging to the side of his head the following afternoon.

He stirred and the nudging abruptly ceased, and there was a scuttling sound next to him. This puzzled Toothless. "am I dead?" he thought, "no I wouldn't be in pain then. Will I see the light if I open my eyes?" Toothless realized the only way to start finding answers was to open his eyes, this time his eyes opened without much effort, on the first try—but only a sliver. Everything was fuzzy and one solid color—white. He closed his eyes quickly, "I knew it, I saw a light. I'm dead." Toothless attempted to open his eyes farther. Success, they opened slowly, but once both eyes were half open, the surroundings began to take shape—a whole lot of grey, with some bright light thrown in. The fuzziness of objects persisted, but Toothless was happy to have his sight back. Content with this he allowed himself to drift off to sleep the first time in several days. Just out of Toothless's line of sight, however, sat a dragon, who was intensely watching and observing him. It dared not get too close after being impatient and forcefully nudging the limp dragon in an attempt to wake him up. The mysterious dragon soon left the cave where both it and Toothless were to search out food and to avoid being noticed too quickly if Toothless awoke at the wrong time.

Toothless awoke the following morning opening his eyes to sunlight shining in from the cave entrance. Painfully, Toothless moved his head taking in the cave surroundings. A sharp bolt of pain echoed down his spine when he moved his head too quickly, wincing at the pain he stopped. After he'd recovered from the acute pain, he slowly moved his head scanning the immediate area. He found no trace of any other dragon living the cave that he estimated could comfortably hold three Night Furies or two Night Furies with their wings fully open. He considered stretching his wings, but the thought was interrupted by grumbles from his stomach. "When did I eat last?" he thought, not knowing how long he'd been out. "Is Hiccup okay? What happened to Hiccup?" It suddenly occurred to him that Hiccup was not with him and he'd no idea what'd happened to the Viking. This thought and the persistent reminders from his stomach urged him to try and figure out where he was.

He stood only to feel a weight on his left side, he looked and found his left-wing stretched out and covered in vegetation. It confused and worried him that he'd not realized his left wing was open. When he attempted to fold his wing against his body, it terrified him that he had to close it consciously. The movement was a pained effort; his wing felt stiff and battered. The next day Toothless awoke to find he'd passed out shortly after closing his wing, he also discovered, to his great joy and relief, a small pile of food lay within reach. After devouring the small collection of fish, he looked at the cave opening determined to find out what was outside, and his body ached as he walked after being near motionless for so long. When Toothless stepped outside the sudden change in light overwhelmed him, he drew back into the cave a few steps until he'd become accustomed to the bright light of day. Toothless could finally see where he was; the island was heavily forested with several patches that were mysteriously devoid of trees. The island itself was unfamiliar, but Toothless somehow felt like he knew the place. "Am I dead? Is this what death is like?" The idea that he'd died and this was Valhalla or the path to it had only gained traction in his mind. Toothless lay down in front of the cliff trying to sort things out in his mind.

"Does he know how long it took me to arrange everything on his wing just right? Ugh. Now he's gone and ruined it." The mysterious dragon thought to itself from a concealed perch overlooking the cave ledge, which was an area Toothless hadn't noticed yet. "what is that 'thing' on his back? And his tail?" This questions had gone unanswered for days now, and she was growing impatient. She'd found the bloody and battered heap of a Night Fury splayed out on the beach days ago, and remained plagued with questions since then. Toothless failed to notice the dragon that'd been spying on him that day until late that night. Toothless awoke when something cold and scaly, brushed across his muzzle followed by a rush of air. It took Toothless a few seconds to re-adjust to the moonlight his vision still being slightly off point.

Outside the night sky was breathtaking, the moon showed thru a break in the clouds and reflected off the water in dazzling beads of luminosity. What caught the Night Fury's attention, however, was not the tranquil landscape but the dragon that was flying in and out of view. It had a certain grace surrounding its movements and flight pattern that bewitched Toothless. He watched with enwrapped curiosity at this unknown dragon executing such graceful and flawless aerial maneuvers. When the dragon that had so masterfully captured Toothless's attention, was illuminated by the moon, Toothless was confident he was dead or hallucinating. "No, it's not possible," he thought shocked. He stared a few seconds longer before retreating into the cave, worry, and panic seizing control of his thoughts. "What did I do to deserve this? Why are the Gods doing this to me? This is unthinkably cruel." Toothless laydown, attempting to silence these and other such thoughts so he could resume his sleep—he hoped.

Once the dragon that had so bewitched Toothless with its flying landed outside of the cave, Toothless spoke up his voice echoing off the cave walls. "Who are you?" This question surprised the Night Fury, and she let out a small shriek of surprise almost falling off the ledge in the process. "Who am I?" she finally said after recovering herself, "who are you?!" "How long—" "and just how long have you been watching me? Surely, you've seen dragons flying before". She stated, fully recovered from the shock, at that moment she re-entered her cave greet to her surprised guest properly. "You're a Night Fury—a female Night Fury!" Toothless said, stunned. "really? I always thought I was an overgrown terrible terror." She said dryly, choosing to ignore his surprise. "You're the first female Night Fury I've seen." This statement wasn't entirely true, but it was close enough. "This makes me special?" she said cautiously, not sure where the topic was going. Toothless remained silent, leaving her retort unanswered.

"We both have questions, I'm sure you have questions for me, and I certainly have questions for you. We can discuss everything over breakfast tomorrow. You've got to be famished, you've only had five fish for an entire week." She said cutting off any questions Toothless might of asked. Toothless was taken aback by what she'd said. "It's been a week? What happened to me?" The second dragon without waiting for a reply wandered off to the opposite side of the cave and prepared to go to sleep. Toothless couldn't sleep, his thoughts simply wouldn't allow it. "What kind of cruel joke is this? When I'm alive, I never so much as find even a trace of my family or any other Night Furies, and then I die. I awake in the afterlife to find I'm sharing a cave with a female Night Fury that is truly gorgeous. What a cruel trick." Toothless stared at the female Night Fury contemplating this. He did eventually fall asleep, but it was by no means easy.


	2. Chapter 2

CH 2

Hiccup lost sight of Toothless when he hit the water, the wind left him on impact, In spite of this Hiccup fought his way to the surface to find that Toothless had all but vanished, and he could see no clues to where his dragon might have crashed. "TOOTHLESS!" It was of little use; his voice was swallowed up by silence immediately. "If I don't get out of this water quick.." He did not finish this thought. He could not bring himself to finish it. After some struggling Hiccup pulled himself onto an outcropping of rocks at the base of a crumbling precipice, unknown to Hiccup, above him, a Monstrous Nightmare sat having taken an interest in the meager Viking upon hearing his shouting. This Monstrous Nightmare observed him a sinister expression reflecting the thought of a low effort lunch nearby. On the outcropping of rocks, Hiccup coughed repeatedly attempting to clear his lungs of the seawater he'd inhaled while swimming to them.

When He took a breather without the sensation of drowning, he looked up and was relieved to see plenty of potential handholds in the cliff face. The onlooking dragon however, was by now more interested in seeing what the Viking was doing rather than going to the effort of killing him. It took Hiccup much longer to reach the top of the cliff than the Monstrous Nightmare cared to wait, so when Hiccup staggered to his feet at the top to find nothing waiting for him. In fact, Hiccup's only greeting was the pain radiating thru him, except for the areas that were already numb from the cold. A few feet later he stopped to take another breather leaning on a lone sapling before walking into the forest to find his dragon and return to Berk.

Hiccup walked, growing steadily more exhausted and weary with every passing step, after He'd passed what he believed to be the same small clearing for the fifth time he stopped. "where am I? Haven't I passed this clearing before?" Hiccup shrugged these thoughts away as he gathered tinder and small branches for a fire. This process took several minutes, as much of what he found was too wet to burn without dragon fire. Once he'd gotten the fire going, Hiccup slowly started to warm up; Inferno was, as he'd, unfortunately, found out, too soaked to do any good. There was not much Hiccup felt he could do besides sit and add fuel to the fire. He was too exhausted to walk anymore, and he needed to warm up. "Toothless, stay alive bud." Hiccup dearly wanted to sleep, but he could not. Something about the island set him on edge making sleep sound dangerous. He did finally however, succumb to sleep but it was a troubled and tormented sleep not restful and rejuvenating.

He witnessed Toothless crash and fall out of the sky over and over in a repeating nightmare. He remembered the icy water feeling especially cold as it rolled over him, a thousand tiny icy spears jabbed at him pushing him down deeper into the water. He fought madly to break free of the water's grasp, each movement more panicked than the last, just when he was certain his fate was sealed, the nightmare would start again. Hiccup did finally wake up, breaking the cycle and wasn't sure if he'd woken up at for a moment. A low fog blanketed the area; it mingled with the trees and left a thin coating of frozen moisture everywhere. Hiccup looked at his clothes to find tiny ice crystals had formed on them and the semisolid water still trapped inside the leather limited his movements. "well that's just great" he said standing, figuring it must be early morning for the fog to be present. Hiccup picked a direction and began walking wanting to find Toothless as soon as possible. He was careful not to hit a tree in the fog, as it would be both embarrassing and painful.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch.3

Toothless awoke the next morning to soft moonlight filtering into the cave, lifting his head slowly he peered out of the cave ensuring he hadn't changed location in his sleep. He breathed a sigh of relief seeing he'd not moved. Across the cave, the female Night Fury he'd discovered the previous night had yet to wake up; not wanting to wake her and be barraged with questions. Toothless exited the cave stopping on the ledge just outside to gaze out at the predawn sky. "Who is she? Why is she helping me? Has anybody missed me? If I'm dead, she must be dead too; right?" Toothless thought before another, more troubling thought hit him. "What if she's only a figment of my imagination? What If—no, that doesn't make any sense, if she isn't real then how did I arrive at this cave, have my left wing attended to and that pile of fish." Toothless thought. He contemplated this problem for a few seconds before opening his wings.

He did so in a slow manner to minimize any residual pain before turning to examine each wing. His neck muscles were stiff and ached from the lack of use, lifting his tail, he inspected his tailfin, it was in sad shape, the leather was torn, and the outer edge of the metal was bent upwards at a 30-degree angle. One of the few good things Toothless observed was its position—fixed open. "It looks stable enough, for now." Without wasting any more time, he leaped off the ledge in an attempt to fly. It was extremely risky. If he were wrong and couldn't fly, he'd crash into the trees that were nearing all too quickly. Luckily an updraft caught Toothless giving him the lift he sought. As he rounded the side of the mountain a short while later and was on a return vector for the cave, he took notice of the dawn breaking announcing the start of a new day.

It was over within minutes all the while turning the sky a brilliant amber hue that turned pastel orange in the clouds. The amber quickly gave way to sheets of pale yellow, recoloring the clouds pink; Toothless had become so intent on watching the sunrise, he was startled when his balance left him. He'd been so focused on the Sunrise he'd forgotten to correct for the tailfin. The situation roused him and a good deal of corrective flapping later he landed in a cove where a stream fed pond nestled. It was there Toothless saw the dirtied and beaten down dragon staring back at him from the surface of the water. Toothless was shocked upon realizing the dragon in the water was him. seeing himself covered with patches of dried, grimy, sand laced blood unsettled him; "how bad were my injuries if I look like this?" Wasting no time, he walked into the pond to try and clean himself off as best he could. "This would be easier if the pond was higher than my stomach." Toothless murmured as he attempted to wash his muzzle with limited success.

After a few minutes without any visible sign that the blood was coming off, he resigned himself to rest beside the pond thinking of the best way to effectively remove the blood. "Is this just how I'm going to look from now on? Can I not clean the blood if I'm dead?" The idea that he was in fact, dead, was losing traction in his mind. Toothless stared at the tiny ripples that formed on the pond from the bugs flying across it as he thought of things that didn't fit in with the theory about being dead. He stared at his tailfin confused, staring at one primary reason if he was killed, why did he still have Hiccup's flight solution attached? Why not two natural tailfins?

"I see you can still fly at least. That's a relief" the female Night Fury stated hovering just above the cove. "Did I wake you?" Toothless asked looking at her; she landed beside him before answering. "No, however, I must admit, I was surprised to see you gone when I woke up." "I wanted to explore, and you looked so peaceful sleeping I didn't want to disturb you." She smiled before noticing the caked-on blood and grime the water had failed to remove from Toothless. "You look concerned, is something wrong?" he asked her. "Your injuries are more extensive than I thought, could you lie down please." he stared at her bewildered, "Lie down? What for?" she huffed impatiently before speaking again. "the longer this gunk stays collected on your wounds, the higher your risk of infection, and then you will have a serious problem. Night Furies do not handle infections well." Toothless was astonished, "how does she know so much about Night Fury healing practices? She isn't old enough to be the healer of a Thunder1, how?"

Toothless apprehensively lay down allowing this new Night Fury to cleanse his wounds. "How do you know so much about Night Fury healing practices, that isn't something a lot of Night Furies know." Toothless asked wincing as she sustained a low heat stream of fire to cleanse his wounds. She stopped for a breath part way thru and answered his question. "My mother was the healer of the Thunder1 I belonged to. She taught me hoping I would take the role over someday." "Was?" Toothless said before he realized he'd spoken aloud. There was silence, after what seemed like forever, she spoke, "It's…difficult to talk about." When Toothless was free of the crud2 covering his injuries, a new pain started. It was a mixture of soft warmth and tiny pockets of sharp acute pain. He turned back to the other Night Fury once he'd looked over her handy work, to find she avoided his gaze. "strange" he thought briefly before asking one last question. "Why did you wait so long?" she looked at him confused. "Why did I wait so long? I don't understand" "I meant, why did you wait until now to cleanse my wounds?" Toothless clarified. "I wanted you to be awake….also, you intrigue me, so it slipped my mind." While Toothless thought about the implications of her answer, she posted a different, more immediate question. "There's a spot not far with plenty of food, and you've got to be famished after not eating for so long." She had so many questions she wanted to ask Toothless she had trouble keeping them from jumping out; she concluded that he'd be more receptive to her questions after eating, so without waiting she flew out of the cove. Toothless stared at her somewhat befuddled.

She stared back hovering, expecting him to fly up and meet her; she was surprised when he did not. After another few seconds of waiting, she landed once more to find out why he'd not joined her in the air. "I can't fly" was His only response, Toothless felt something strange as he said this; "shame? Why would I be ashamed? I've never felt at a disadvantage." She did not understand how he could not fly, given his current location, but was unsure how to ask such a question. "um..I know another way to get there, it might take a little longer is all, follow me." She made her way up a path that lead to the cove's rim, and she urged Toothless to follow. "This path is awfully convenient, did you create this for easy access?" Toothless asked while climbing, "I did; in a way, there was an…incident, I simply…made use of it." Once Toothless was out of the cove, they began to walk thru the forest. "My names Eletra by the way, what's yours?" she asked making conversation. "Toothless." Eletra stopped and turned to look at him, "Toothless? Isn't that a rather unusual name for Night Fury?" She did not stop long though, as she resumed walking quickly. "I've grown accustomed to it. It's a homage to my retractable teeth." "Odd thing to name your hatchling after I'll say." Toothless did not feel confiding in her that a Viking was responsible for his name was a wise idea.

"I don't usually walk on this island; one tree looks like another." She did not want to divulge the real reason she almost never walked anywhere—not yet at least. Several quiet minutes later Eletra stopped and turned to face Toothless, "I'm going to fly up and check how close where we're going is, we should've been there by now." Toothless watched her fly away before turning his gaze back to the forest. A sudden explosion nearby startled him sending a jolt down his spine. "Sorry, about that, I needed to…take care of something that was in the way". Eletra said appearing in front of him, Toothless couldn't get over her eyes, a deep green expanse laced with pale yellow, a light dusting of forest green clung to the edges. "Toothless?" Toothless snapped out of the trace he'd slipped into and proceeded to follow her once more.

When the two Night Furies had eaten their fill, Eletra thought which question would be best to ask first, "Should I ask like it's only a passing interest, or let on that I've puzzled over it for several days now." Toothless who was preoccupied with examining his wings again failed to see the indecisiveness on Eletra's face. It was only when Toothless remembered she'd especially _wanted_ to ask him questions that he took notice of her again. "Eletra?" She came out of her thoughts to look at Toothless. "Yes?" but inside her calm had all but given up. "Ugh, I didn't speak up fast enough, now he's going to ask me questions before I'll—I love how he says my name." Her thoughts derailed once she registered he'd used her name to address her. "You wanted to ask me questions, did you decide to wait?" "…what?" was all she could manage to think in response to this unexpected courtesy. "Yes, yes, I did-do have some questions for you." The two dragons made themselves comfortable, both guessing they would be talking for quite awhile.

"I can only assume that what is in place of your left tailfin helps you fly, but what is all this other stuff attached to you? How does it not bother you? That would drive me mad within minutes." Toothless chuckled lightly before answering, "That's just it, right now it does bother me, I'm not accustomed to it being on for such an extended period." "Why don't you just remove it then?" "If I remove it, I will be placing myself in grave danger. As for what it is, well you're right, I do need it so I can fly." Eletra could tell he was not telling her something, but she didn't want to risk the rest of her questions by prodding him for the rest of the answer to one question. "How did I get into your cave? You don't look like you would've carried a limp Night Fury to your cave." Eletra gave him an indigent look, "maybe I should've asked" she thought briefly before dismissing the thought. He sounded sincere in his asking, and it was a reasonable question she decided after thinking about it for a few seconds. She still whacked his muzzle with her tail.

"I guess that's a fair question; I'd want to know that if I woke up in a strange cave—among other things." She added quickly. "I managed to convince one of the Monstrous Nightmares inhabiting this island to bring you to the entrance of my cave; I dragged you inside from there. It's not often a dragon, particularly a Night Fury washes up on the beach looking like a Skrill took a disliking to him." "Why though?" Toothless asked curiously as to why she went to so much trouble for him. "because I'm a nice dragon." She said trying to skirt the question. "You could've just pulled me out of the water and left me, why did you take such care in ensuring I recovered?" Eletra gave in, "I wanted you out of the weather, my cave seemed like a good place to monitor your condition. Also, there was just something…something…you just seemed different, like more important somehow." She had started to smile without realizing it. Toothless did not fail to miss this. "Satisfied?" she said a few seconds later. Toothless nodded silently and didn't ask anything else; he had a lot of new information to process. He was indebted to her "I need to find a way to show my appreciation." He moved his tail closer to hers and for a brief moment their tailfins intertwined. "There is no way I can be dead. I refuse to accept that reality." Toothless thought as a gleeful joy began to bubble up inside him.

1Thunder— a group of wild dragons.

2Crud—a deposit or incrustation of filth, grease, or refuse

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	4. Chapter 4

Ch.4

On Berk, Astrid searched all over and found no sign of Toothless or Hiccup. It had been only a matter of hours since they'd left, yet she was worried; Hiccup had promised to meet her at the Dragon Training Academy to discuss cold weather preparations. "Where is he?" Astrid asked aloud as she and Stormfly landed outside the Haddock house. "Why didn't we check here first?" Stormfly thought as Astrid knocked on the door. Astrid was hoping Hiccup had become lost in a project again and simply forgot to meet her but there was no answer. Cautiously, Astrid opened the door, "Hiccup? You in here?" She was expecting to hear a rustling and then a startled "Astrid, what are you doing here?" There was only the crackling of the hearth as it dwindled from lack of attention.

She started upstairs wondering if Hiccup had somehow missed her shouting, "Hiccup? You'd better have a good reason for not showing up as we agreed." It was all a lie she told herself not wanting to admit something happened to Hiccup—again. She opened the small trap door to Hiccup's loft bedroom and found⎯nothing. Astrid was not surprised by this and took a quick look around. His desk was a mess of papers, as it always was. "Maybe he left a note or something," Astrid said to herself nearing the desk, her thoughts, however, painted a much different picture. "I'm wasting time here; I'm kidding myself thinking I'll find something here." She began to search not only thru the papers on his desk but around his room as well. When Astrid finally came down the stairs, Valka was waiting for her.

"Astrid. Have you seen Hiccup?" She asked as if Astrid coming down the stairs was normal. "I haven't, and he was supposed to meet me at the dragon academy a few hours ago." "tea?" Valka offered, Astrid declined a knot forming in her stomach. "I was tending to Cloudjumper; I must've missed you go up to Hiccup's room. When you see Hiccup, let him know to come talk to me, there's something that could affect his dragon shortly." "I'll let him know to talk to you" Astrid hurriedly stepped outside not wanting Valka to ask why she'd been in Hiccup's room. Outside the sky had begun to darken, the sun vanishing below the horizon. "I was in Hiccup's room longer than I thought" Astrid picked up Stormfly's saddle and walked back to her house.

The next morning at dragon training when both Hiccup and Toothless failed to show. Astrid began to strongly suspect something had indeed happened to Hiccup that prevented him from returning to Berk. "Hiccup should've been here by now. I don't like this" Fishlegs said already nervous at the idea Hiccup was missing. "Oh come on, it's not like Toothless would let anything happen to him," Tuffnut reassured Fishlegs. Astrid forced herself to focus and pushed thoughts of Hiccup away by preparing the academy for the day's training exercise. "I still don't see why we have to train to fight dragons when we don't fight them anymore," Snotlout stated as he helped set up. Astrid would've corrected him, but Fishlegs spoke first. "We're not fighting them; we're fighting with them. We need to know how to use our dragon's abilities in cooperation with our skills. In case we get attacked again."

"Are we ready?" Gobber said walking into the arena and looked around, "uh, has anyone seen our resident celebrities?" he mentioned noticing that both Hiccup and Toothless were not there. "Nope" "uh-uh" "haven't seen him" "beats me" "Yeah like where's he been, he's never late to show off," Snotlout said earning him a Nadder spike in his direction. "Hey! I was only kidding" he said to Stormfly who didn't look at him. "Wait, why his Gobber even here? He's not doing anything." Tuffnut said motioning to the blacksmith who was leaning against the wall. "Because every time you two are left alone something happens," Astrid said pointedly at the twins. "what?" Ruffnut said not paying attention to what Astrid had been saying. The milling around waiting for somebody to do something lasted for another minute before Gobber spoke up. "Well, if you can't think of anything to do there's a lot of saddles to build." Astrid saw her chance and quickly exited. "There's, uh, something I need to discuss with Valka," she said before running off with Stormfly close behind. "I hate her," Snotlout said irritated. "right then, follow me," Gobber said hobbling out of the academy with the dragon trainers in tow.

"Ugh, if Hiccup had shown up like he was supposed to I wouldn't be stuck doing this. I could be doing something fun." Snotlout said irritably as he covered a saddle form with a sheet of leather. "At least you don't have to try and remember what frills Bob wants on his saddle," Tuffnut retorted at Snotlout. "I heard that," Bob said from the back. Astrid pleaded with Stormfly to please not to roast anyone's Terrible Terror again while she removed her saddle. Once Stormfly had gone, Astrid entered the Great hall to find Valka adding to the Dragon manual. "I thought you'd already added to the Dragon manual" Valka looked up startled. "I did, but I went back to my dragon sanctuary and retrieved my notes. I didn't have a chance with all the activity since Hiccup became Chief, and I never could bring myself to go back before then." Astrid look surprised. Valka laughed, "you thought I remembered 20 years of knowledge about dragons without writing it down?" Astrid shrugged sheepishly; it felt funny to admit that was what she'd thought. Astrid quickly sat herself down opposite of Valka. Her fear was starting to creep onto her face.

Valka stopped laughing when she saw the troubled look on the young Vikings face. "You came here to talk about more than the dragon manual I suppose, judging by your troubled expression." Valka noticed as she placed the book off to one side. "It's Hiccup. I think something's happened to him." Valka thought it over for a moment considering the possibility. "what makes you so sure?" She asked. She was his mother, but she felt disconnected in regards to Hiccup's behaviors and actions over the course of his life. "Normally he can take care of himself; he has a Night Fury as a best friend. He wouldn't miss dragon training though. It's not like him. He missed a meeting we'd set up to discuss cold weather preparations, I can't get over this feeling something awful had befallen him." Astrid continued trying to maintain her tough exterior without appearing emotionless. "Hiccup probably got lost somewhere while exploring, You've been friends with him longer than I've been involved in his life, If he isn't back tomorrow, come find me." Astrid thanked Valka and promptly took her leave. A clap of thunder broke the silence; Sleet quickly followed that sent both Viking and Dragon alike scurrying for cover. Astrid hurried out into the freak storm pushing thoughts about Hiccup from her mind as she gathered the other dragon riders to batten down the livestock from the blizzard.


	5. Chapter 5

Ch.5

"Fright, you sure about this? I mean they're Night Furies. It's not like the Terrible Terrors we keep roasting." A Monstrous Nightmare said looking up thru the trees at the cave ledge containing the two Night Furies. "Flamewings, you aren't scared of a crippled Night Fury, and a runaway are you?" Fright said pointedly. "No, it's just, Night Furies are hard enough with one of them, but two? " SILENCE! You stupid, unimaginative fool, I should call you coward instead of Flamewings" Flamewings disliked being insulted in such a way, but unlike Fright, Flamewings knew better than to attack a Night Fury, even a weakened one without lots of compatriots and were ready for a fight. "Wouldn't it be easier to pick them off one at a time instead of trying to get them both at once?" Flamewings suggested trying to bring the somewhat stupid Monstrous Nightmare to what little sense he had. Fright grumbled and reluctantly agreed to kill them off separately to save time. He glared at the offending ledge before turning and darting off following Flamewings thru the forest.

While the two dragons were on their way to roast the remaining population of Terrors on the island, they stumbled across a Viking, he carried no weapon, and he carried no shield. All he carried was a small cylinder that he clung to fervently. A few moments later as the Viking ran for his life, the Two Monstrous Nightmares were coughing at having inhaled and ignited so much Zippleback gas. "what was that _THING_ he used!?" Flamewings choked out aching to get the taste of Zippleback gas out of his lungs. "Whatever it is, I hate it, next time we see him, get him with the claws first and then roast the hell out of him." Fright said to Flamewings who agreed while coughing. A thought occurred to Flamewings as the last of the Zippleback gas taste dissipated, "Fright, yesterday I overheard Ashes telling another dragon that he observed a Viking climbing up one of the cliffs on the island shortly beforehand." "WHAT!" Fright expelled, "HE DIDN'T KILL HIM ON SIGHT! HE LET THE PEST GET AWAY!" Flamewings had liked Ashes. Ashes had at one point been involved with Fright's gang yet he retained some integrity before leaving with a few more charred scales than he previously had. Without letting Fright know he'd gone, Flamewings abandoned the enraged dragon narrowly avoiding the wall of fire that drenched the nearby trees. "I should say my last goodbyes to Ashes now. I won't get a chance once Fright locates him." Flamewings thought as he hurried off to find the doomed dragon.

Ashes was an old dragon, his coat had been at one time, brilliant red, but now it maintained a dull shadow of its former self. Ashes had large blackened patches from various injuries over the years across his body, but the worst damage of them all derived from a fight between another Monstrous Nightmare over mating privileges of a nearby female several years prior. It left Ashes with a limited amount of thought processes to rely on. He rarely paid attention to warnings or advice as almost never remembered them a short while later. When he did listen, he often wondered why he would be doing things that had no apparent reason. "ASHES!" Flamewings broke into a clearing panicked. "Yes, young dragon. Fl—amewings is it?"Ashes said looking up from his contemplations. "Yes, Fright is going to kill you for not eating the Viking you saw." This remark surprised Ashes. "Is he now, and what Viking did I not eat? I would have recalled such a dangerous encounter." Ashes also believed himself to be a lot stronger than he currently was, even on a good day. "You've got to hide." "Thank you Flamewings; I will give it some thought, now be going before I roast you myself, you're interrupting my thinking." The younger dragon vanished back into the woods, knowing Ashes would do as he stated, without fail. Not five minutes later Ashes had forgotten the encounter had ever happened.

Fright who was still steaming mad and now surrounded by a blackened clearing previously occupied by trees and small foliage, Blinded by rage he envisioned the last dragon on the island that still posed any threat to him, The Night Fury, that precise and perfect marksman that never failed to humiliate him. Not long after plotting her demise, he encountered her. She was flying around trying to locate a particular plant her mother had shown her when she was younger, saying it healed open wounds faster and reduced infection. "hmmm" a decidedly evil grin spread across the Monstrous Nightmare's face. He took off in pursuit of the Night Fury not remembering the four times before when she'd bested him, each time leaving him with a permanent reminder of their encounter.

He found her attempting to snag a small plant growing out of a cliff overhanging the water. The Night Fury moved in closer to the cliff to try and grab the flower with her teeth; Fright narrowly missed hitting her with a stream of fire as he dove where she had been seconds ago before tucking her body in for more control. Eletra stopped and looked at Fright who was returning for another pass. "Ugh, this stupid idiot again. How many body parts to I need to remove for him to get the message and leave me alone?" She pretended to go about her business for a few seconds longer and then effortlessly barrel rolled to one side and let Fright slam into the cliff, sending both him and the loosely packed dirt into the water. Eletra did not wait around; she had more important things to worry about; a severely injured Night Fury to name one. Fright hit the water with a loud splash and was several seconds before he broke the surface and took flight loathing the free bath he had just received. "I swear I'll snap that Night Furies neck even It's the last thing I do! Once she's dead, I'm going to rip her wings clean off her dead body one by one!" Fright nearly had sparks coming out his nostrils. "YOU HEAR THAT NIGHT FURY! IM GONNA RIP YOUR WINGS OFF YOUR DEAD BODY!" The sound of his screams echoed off the mountain. He vanished into the forest to find something to roast. Eletra had, in fact, heard him. She wasn't scared of the Monstrous Nightmare, but she did not doubt his words for a second. "I must stay clear of him." She thought to herself as she ventured off to another spot on the island to search for the plant Fright had incinerated while charging the cliff face.


	6. Chapter 6

Ch.6

** If you think I should change the rating, at any time, please let me know. Reviews and comments are a big help, what did you like, what did you not like, is there anything to be improved? If you have something you want to say, please leave a review/comment below.**

Hiccup woke up in a cold sweat, and he looked to see the sky still dark with only the light reflecting off of the moon to distinguish one object from another. He blinked, looking around at the frozen landscape before him. "This is bad; I should've saved the Zippleback gas instead of using it to yesterday to escape from those Monstrous Nightmares." He paused before speaking again."If I start moving, I should warm up, right?" Hiccup stood and brushed the ice from his clothes before half walking, half staggering into the forest to warm up. A few rays of sunlight filtered down into the trees as the sun began to rise a little bit later. Hiccup noticing this ran into a clearing and stood for several minutes in a patch of sunlight warming up before he realized where he'd ran. It turned out to be small grassy meadow surrounded by trees, as the shadows began to fade as the sun rose, the morning dew glistened on the grass as the light hit it.It was a breathtaking sight, but Hiccup saw only danger. "I've got to find shelter if I'm going to spend another night here. Anything is better than sleeping under a bush."

Across the meadow Hiccup thought he heard a rustling noise, he dismissed it, it was only when he heard it again that he acknowledged it wasn't in his head. A tiny ember of hope began to glow within him, fueled by this unexpected noise. "Toothless? Is that you?" The noise ceased and did not return, whatever had made the noise hurried off away from his voice. "At least it's not another Monstrous Nightmare" he muttered under his breathe—which was still visible in the chilled morning air. Later around noontime Hiccup came across the carcass of a long departed Deadly Nadder. Little meat remained, and what did remain was rotten to the core. Hiccup, quickly recorded his finding in his journal finding it both fascinating and profoundly disturbing.

"This Nadder looked to have lost a fight and had it's spine crushed," Hiccup muttered to himself as he examined the dead dragon's remains further. The dragon's spikes, however, were not posed for an attack, this gave rise to the idea that the dragon was ambushed and killed instantaneously. "What dragon would do this? And why would it sneak attack?" Hiccup wondered out loud as if expecting the wind to respond to him., "a Hideous Zippleback maybe? No, this dragon died from force, not fire." Determining what killed this Deadly Nadder took Hiccup's mind off the chill of his clothes; but only temporarily. Hiccup kept walking, it was a little over an hour before he found another dragon carcass, but this time, it had company. "At least now I know why the island is empty," Hiccup observed looking at a Monstrous Nightmare that had been skewered by several Deadly Nadder spikes, looking further he noticed a total of five corpses; Three Monstrous Nightmare, and two Deadly Nadder. "What happened here?" Hiccup was dumbfounded, it was clear the dragons had killed each other but the reasons why bothered him. "I don't see any nests or smashed eggs" Hiccup was quite thankful for that. He recorded what he'd found alongside his previous find; this time however, he included a sketch of one of the dragons. Hiccup did not idle long. He quickly ventured onward still hoping to find his dragon and leave.

By early afternoon Hiccup had exhausted his energy looking for Toothless, stopping for a break he flopped down onto the ground questioning what he should do next. He awoke to the sound of loud rustling near him and realized that he must've fallen asleep. Looking around for the source of the noise he nearly fainted; a Night Fury was eating a bush, or at least he thought it was eating a bush. "TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup exclaimed loudly. The Night Fury stopped and looked at him, surprise evident on its face. It stared at him for several seconds before taking flight without making another sound. "HEY WAI-" it dawned on Hiccup that this Night Fury did not have any trouble flying on its own. Furthermore, he couldn't be sure if he'd seen a saddle on the Night Fury. "I knew it; I'm dead." He said to himself not sure if anything was real anymore. "Toothless where are you bud?" Hiccup sank to the ground in despair, looking to the sky trying to spot the dragon again. It was no good; the Night Fury was gone, vanished as if it never was there. "Was it really there?" Hiccup found himself wondering, and he couldn't be sure one way or the other.

By sunset, Hiccup was becoming worried that he wouldn't find sufficient cover before nightfall. He'd passed a few possible shelters but refrained from entering out of fear that something vicious would be happy for the dinner walking into it's home. As Hiccup came to yet another clearing, hollowed out trunks and small patches of blackened ground revealed, it wasn't always a clearing. A Monstrous Nightmare carcass remained pinned under a fallen tree; its neck badly mangled. Hiccup stopped, taken aback by the scene. The sun chose that moment to vanish, leaving Hiccup in the dark. Acting fast he wedged himself underneath a wing, and bedding down for the night. It was not an ideal choice by any means, but he preferred it over freezing. "At least it's _somewhat_ protected from the cold." He thought, feeling a slight draft. It was several minutes before sleep finally overtook him and he drifted off.

Hiccup awoke in the dead of night to find himself halfway out from underneath the makeshift shelter. He repositioned himself underneath the wing and waited for sleep to return when a loud ruckus shattered the calm silence. The noise, muffled by the wing, but he could still make out screaming, loud crashes, and finally a sickeningly bone-like snap. A few seconds later nothing remained but an almost mournful silence. Hiccup gulped, "which dragon won? Is there more than just the two dragons I've encountered?" This thought persisted as Hiccup drifted off again. He was abruptly awakened later on by a clap of thunder sending tremors thru the ground. A few moments when by before the area around him lit up bright as daylight, another thunderclap echoed off the trees as the light died away. He began to hear the pitter-patter of rain droplets on the wing, it started as a light drizzle but quickly evolved into a flashflood-like sound. Thanks to the wing's positioning, Hiccup remained for the most part; dry. After what seemed like forever, the rain decreased in power to a steady downpour, the rhythmic beating of rain on the wings exterior finally sending Hiccup to sleep; for the third time that night. In the morning when Hiccup awoke again, he found icicles formed on the wing, As stared, they began to glow, indicating the first sign of daylight.


	7. Chapter 7

Ch.7

On Berk, Valka had started to get nervous; Hiccup had been missing for three days with no trace of him or his dragon. Valka sat gazing into the hearth sipping her tea when Astrid knocked at her door. Valka hadn't been idling waiting for Hiccup to return miraculously but she determined that Astrid, given the proper time and encouragement would find Hiccup in no time at all. "Valka, you there?" Astrid waited nervously for as Valka moved to open the door. "I'm glad you're here, how are you holding up?" Astrid did not feel well, she was not physically ill, but a mental fog-shrouded her thoughts. Astrid stood in the doorway for a moment before stepping inside away from the frigid winter air. It was difficult for Valka as she figured Astrid already knew what she was about to say. That should've made it easier to speak, but it did not. "I'm sorry Astrid, Hiccup hasn't come back yet." At first, there was no reaction from Astrid save an icy calm that overtook her; it was a minute or so later that the full effect began to break thru Astrid's outer shell. She slumped by the fire her emotions washing over her in waves.

"I should've expected this. I knew something was wrong." Astrid thought, mentally kicking herself for not acting faster as she stared into the fire tears rolling down her face. "What do you plan on doing?" Valka asked, did not want Astrid to drown her sorrows. Astrid looked up, wiping the tears from her eyes "I go find Hiccup and help him escape his situation." Valka didn't want to leave anything to chance regarding her son. "Before you fly off to find him, You've no idea what trouble Toothless, and he is in, a few supplies might be useful." Astrid agreed, letting the remark slide before composing herself once more. As she was about to leave Astrid thought of something, "why haven't you gone looking for Hiccup? You've been worried as well." Astrid asked before she thought about the effect it may have on Valka. Thankfully, Valka seemed unbothered by the question, even going so far as to smile. "Astrid, if Hiccup is indeed in trouble, there is little Cloudjumper or I could do. I haven't picked up an ax in over 20 years. What good would I be?" It was the better of the two possible answers she could've given Astrid, the second being; performing Hiccup's duties in his absence. Astrid sighed defeated, and was soon busily gathering supplies in preparation to rescue Hiccup.

Meanwhile, Stormfly had sought out Cloudjumper in need of a favor. "If I can get Cloudjumper's help, things will go a lot smoother." Stormfly believed Cloudjumper to be Toothless's mentor. She thought he might be willing to help if necessary. She found the Stormcutter asleep in the stables and most displeased at being disturbed. "Cloudjumper?" "Can it wait?" the sleeping dragon asked without even opening an eye. "It's about Toothless" Stormfly assumed this would carry some weight with Cloudjumper—she was mistaken. "What do you want me to do? I'm not responsible for that rambunctious twenty-year-old. Has he done something?" Cloudjumper asked cautiously opening an eye. "Astrid is worried about Hiccup's whereabouts." The Stormcutter grumbled and moved to a more comfortable sitting position. "Ugh, it's always something with that Viking. Does he ever stay out of trouble?" Cloudjumper said frustrated. "Afraid not. He's acted like as long as I've known him, he used to be a lot worse, or so I've heard." Stormfly replied. This caused the Stormcutter to shake his head in dismay "I can believe that Stormfly, I really can." Stormfly chuckled before reminding Cloudjumper of the topic at hand. "Why should Hiccup's whereabouts concern me? Has something befallen Toothless?" Cloudjumper asked trying to make sense of her otherwise pointless interruption of his sleep. "I doubt it; Toothless is a very capable dragon. However, he won't stop trying to find Hiccup." Stormfly wasn't sure how true this was, but it worked. "Within reason, of course, Toothless does seem to be an energetic Night Fury with a protective nature." Stormfly chuckled again. "What did you want me to do?" he was glad she finally got to the point. "Just make sure the other dragons don't do anything that would need Toothless to intervene—or at least ensure the Vikings don't notice." Cloudjumper agreed "That sounds easy, and a bit fun if I need to divert attention somehow, stay well Stormfly." With that parting comment, the Cloudjumper now fully awake, left to find a quick meal.

"Stormfly?" Astrid had finished her preparations but lost her dragon, She'd turned around to find Stormfly gone and no clues to her location, sighing she doubled checked her supplies. When she turned around again, Stormfly was waiting by her saddle. "I'm losing my mind," Astrid thought, "Come on girl let's get this on you." "Where should we start? Which direction should we check first?" Stormfly knew that Astrid would prefer to stay out of the ice-laden thunderstorm that'd passed over Berk awhile ago. She veered left instead of right upon leaving Berk. This decision would prove to be very dull indeed—for the most part. Several boring islands later, the pair landed on an island lacking any special significance. "You see if there is Anything visible from the air Stormfly, I'll stay down here and look" Stormfly squawked and flew off, while Astrid set off into a cluster of trees hoping to cover more ground with Stormfly looking from above and herself on the ground.

About an hour later, she scaled a fallen tree landing with a soft thump on the mossy ground—only to look up and see a singular1 of Boars glaring at her. She stiffened, while not nearly as lethal as dragons, a group could still inflict serious injury on a Viking. One of the Boars charged but was swiftly struck down by the fallen tree, Astrid having dodged the Boar at the last moment. This action aggravated the remaining Boar2 forcing Astrid to run. She did not care that the path she chose could lead her to a dead trial ended several minutes later at a rock ledge that lined a sizable waterfall; the Boars stopped—Astrid did not. She quickly distanced herself by moving further out onto the narrow ledge. "Odin, that was too close." When her heart rate slowed, she took stock of her situation, and it wasn't looking in her favor.

As she took in her situation, she wondered how far up she'd gone attempting to escape the singular of Boar. She looked down, and was bolt upright a second later. "Oh gosh, don't look down." It was a long drop of which the bottom could not be glimpsed, mist and foam from the waterfall saw to that. She looked down again while catching the remainder of the breath she'd lost escaping the Boars. This time she noticed it was a steep drop complete with jagged rocks and little fuzzy green bushes to hit on the way down; The rising mist from the waterfall coated everything making the fall seem even more treacherous and fatal than it already was. That was when she heard it—the foundation under her feet was giving way, within moments the ledge was no more. Astrid found she couldn't hear herself screaming, but she could feel it—it terrified her. She also couldn't hear the roar and crash of the waterfall; in fact, she couldn't hear anything. Time seemed to have slowed down, She craned her head a few degrees and saw the water droplets in the waterfall almost as if frozen in time. She tasted the salt on her lips and felt the abrasiveness of the salt in the mist rising from the waterfall when it contacted with her skin. Her body had slowed to match her surroundings as well; movement was slow and uncoordinated. She craned her head to peer up at the sky a second or two later, but it felt like hours since she moved. She looked only to see a black shape slowly descending on her. It's winged appearance blotting out the sun as it drew in close—two sets3 of claws came into focus talons outstretched, Astrid's eyes widened in a panic. Abruptly the moment ended. Her ears were immediately overwhelmed by the roar and crash of the waterfall, Stormfly latched her claws securely around her rider's upper limbs and carried her up and away from the jagged depths of the waterfall. Astrid also felt the crispiness of her throat demanding attention. "Must've been the screaming." She thought she dared not speak yet.

"Thank you. You're the best Stormfly." Astrid said hoarsely once she'd successfully forced a sentence out. The Deadly Nadder squawked happily at the compliment. Astrid's heart beat like a drum in her ears for several minutes afterward. When the pounding of her heart had ceased to be in her head, she decided it was time to get back in the saddle. "Okay girl, you know what to do" Stormfly squawked and swung Astrid forward letting go, her momentum keeping her suspended for a fraction of a second as Stormfly quickly adjusted her flight pattern. Astrid plopped right into her saddle, unharmed. "Good girl; that trick I taught you was actually useful." Astrid patted her dragon. "Let's head back to Berk; I'm allotted one near-death experience per day." She joked, "We'll have better luck tomorrow I'm sure" and then with less enthusiasm she added "Nobody can ever know about this, I would never hear the end of it."

1 Singular—group of wild Boar(s)

2 Boar—plural form, also can be Boars.

3 I know it may be confusing but it sounds better this way.


	8. Chapter 8

Ch.8

Hiccup quickly broke the Stalagmites and stepped out of his shelter into the new day. He turned around taking in the view. Frost1 coated everything. The decomposing dragon didn't look so tortured when covered with a thin frost layer at least. Hiccup took a step and found himself looking up at the sky forgetting that ice created more hazards to avoid. While he was looking up at the sky, Hiccup noticed the storm and the rest of the clouds had moved on. Standing up, careful to avoid any ice patches he set off in a direction he hadn't explored yet. "Toothless!" Hiccup doubted shouting for Toothless would do anything, but he tried anyway, he was getting desperate. After walking in the brisk morning air for an hour or so Hiccup came across what used to be a tree, It had been violently uprooted and crushed to bits. It appeared to have been quite recent judging by the charred areas and freshly exposed wood. This snagged Hiccup's curiosity as he looked around for clues to what lead to the destruction of the tree. Instead of finding answers he found more questions.

Several trees had been severely burned or damaged, all recently. "I bet the noises I heard last night came from right around here." However, when Hiccup stopped talking, he noticed how still everything felt. Not just quiet, but dead, the air was motionless and hung heavy, and the surrounding trees looked tense as if trying to have him leave by force of will. Turning around Hiccup found a potential reason the surrounding area had gone silent and fearful. A Monstrous Nightmare was staring him down. Fright was delighted to see the Viking who had thwarted his efforts to have a Viking supper. Hiccup noted that this Monstrous Nightmare was missing the same horn from his head as the Monstrous Nightmare that'd made a move to kill him days prior. Hiccup wanted to run. He dearly wanted to escape into the trees and be rid of the dragon. Not willing to chance turning his back on the volatile dragon, even for a second, he remained where he was; rooted staring down a dragon with a nasty disposition.

Fright smirked before advancing on the Viking. Hiccup quickly began to back up into the tree line, he could see where this was going and wanted out. This did not go unnoticed, and Fright lunged forward snapping his jaws where Hiccup should've been. Hiccup had dodged to one side and was concealing himself behind a pair of small bushes. Fright roared in frustration and blasted the area around him with a thick coating of fire. Hiccup's eyes burned with the smoke created by the fires. Luckily his hiding place was not within the oozy fire slime's reach. "WHERE DID THAT HORRID VIKING GO!" Fright roared and madly swung his head side to side scanning the area and yet, somehow, neglected to look down. Hiccup's eyes felt on fire, and his lungs felt ready to burst, but he kept quiet knowing a single utterance would be his death. "AAAAAAA!" Fright screamed at the emptiness, and he flew off in anger having been outsmarted yet again by a puny Viking, Hiccup stood up, wiped his eyes and coughed, repeatedly, until he gaged, and almost lost the contents of his stomach in a violent coughing fit.

Once he'd recovered, He moved away from the fire and proceeded to investigate the area behind a bent and tree with a reddish tinge. Hiccup assumed the dragon had emerged from here without him noticing. Hiccup quickly wished he'd not ventured upon seeing a recently departed Monstrous Nightmare on its side laying just past the bent tree. Its head was crooked in an unnatural and lifeless manner that sent shivers up his spine. There was blood everywhere, The blood covering the length of his body had frozen into spine-chilling blood ice2. Hiccup wanted to look away and purge the sight from his mind, but he couldn't. When Hiccup looked at the Monstrous Nightmare's head, he lurched backward in horror. The eyes were wide open, staring out at him. The dragon was very dead, but the eyes seemed to track him wherever he moved. He quickly looked at the eyes again, but immediately looked away, they looked desperate. Instead of focusing on the eyes, Hiccup looked at the unnatural kink in the dragon's neck. There was not much blood around the dragon's neck, most likely from the speed of death after receiving a broken neck. Hiccup felt his stomach begin to churn, and he raced back out into the burnt clearing trying to escape the gaze of the dead dragon. He looked back for a moment to see the eyes staring right back at him. He ran into the forest desperate to escape. "RUN! NO! Don't look back!" screaming in his head all the while.3

Not wanting to search alone twice, Astrid gathered the dragon riders together at the dragon training academy. "uh, why are we here? Yeah, I was gonna try out this new trick with Barf" Tuffnut said and received a jab from Ruffnut "I was going to teach Belch that!" Astrid arrived a minute later to find Barf and Belch separating Ruffnut and Tuffnut. She rolled her eyes at the two before switching to the task at hand. "Uh, Astrid, in case you forgot… Hiccup is the one who calls the meetings." Fishlegs said nervously checking a book detailing the happenings at the academy. "Yeah, where is Hiccup?" Snotlout said worried, for Hiccup was absent far longer than normal. "Look, something's happened to him or Toothless preventing them from getting back to Berk. We need to go find him" "It's Toothless, he's a Night Fury what could happen?" Tufnut said, having been set back down . "uh, remember when The Outcasts captured Toothless and Hiccup?" Fishlegs replied, "Remember Drago Bludvist?" Astrid said at Tuffnut with an icy stare; he gulped nervously. "Oh yeah, I remember the Outcasts," Tuffnut said eager to change the subject. After some quick preflight explanations from Astrid, the group s took flight to start searching for Hiccup and Toothless.

Not that far from Berk, the Vikings regrouped. "Snotlout, you and Hookfang search Dragon Isle and the nearby islands, Ruffnut, Tuffnut…" Astrid paused considering; "You two go and search around the dragon sanctuary." The twins scrunched their faces at the idea, "what about Meatlug and I? Fishlegs asked flying up alongside Stormfly. "Fishlegs, I want you to see if there is anything at sea level. We'll meet back at Berk to see what we've found." The group separated heading off in different directions to search. By early afternoon, Astrid landed back on Berk having found nothing. She found Snotlout and the Twins in the Great hall in the midst of an insult contest. When Astrid sat down to listen, they stopped. "I didn't find any trace of Hiccup. " "yeah, neither did—if we have to go back to that island I'm not going," Ruffnut said beating Tuffnut by a second. "Where is Fishlegs? I thought you'd be the last one back" Snotlout asked. As if on cue Fishlegs burst thru the door panting, the fear plain as day on his face.

"You were right Astrid!" "SHHH, the entire hall will hear you," the small group said in unison. Fishlegs whispered, "I found this washed up on an island." He held out Hiccup's facemask that he wore when flying. The small group stared at it for a long moment before Astrid found her words. "Fishlegs you _have_ to show me where you found this." "Let me get a few things and I'll then we can go" He knew the moment he revealed the mask to Astrid, she'd want to leave immediately to find Hiccup. Astrid only had to wait a few minutes for Fishlegs to appear. When Fishlegs did show up, he had a leather pouch over one shoulder containing the dragon manual. "I'm ready." Astrid kept quiet while flying not wanting Fishlegs to become disoriented. "It should be just ahead." Astrid felt her shoulders relax, which startled her. The island Fishlegs spoke of was more a sandbar than an island. "We flew for hours to get here only to see a sandbar Hiccup and Toothless are not at!?" Astrid said her calm exterior gone. "Maybe if we search the surrounding islands where I found this we'll have better luck." Fishlegs held up the facemask, Astrid stopped, "He's right; Hiccup might be on a nearby island" she thought "maybe I was too on edge." Fishlegs was curious why Astrid had stopped but was glad all the same, he needed the rest. "Let's start searching." Astrid said, "Hiccup, you are so getting it," she thought before prompting Stormfly to take off once more.

Back on the island Eletra's patience had all but worn out. This stemmed from her lack of progress in trying to wake Toothless. She was, however, proud of herself for managing to get a majority of the damage on the larger Night Fury's body healed, or at the very least showing significant improvement. "What did this Night Fury do that would merit this much damage?" she thought while lounging on the ledge in front of her cave. She was reflecting on how he'd looked when she discovered the Night Fury. "Gorgeous" She immediately glanced into the cave to ensure the unconscious dragon hadn't heard that slip out. "He's just a Night Fury, I've been around lots of Night Furies, he's just another Night Fury." She knew this Night Fury was not just any Night Fury though, and it puzzled her how he could've had such an impact on her—without even being awake. "If he doesn't wake up today, he _will_ wake up tomorrow!' She said confident that he would be waking up, one way or another. Eletra woke up sometime later, still on the ledge, to see the sky around her turning pink and realized it was sunset. Thoughts of her mother faded as she shook off the unplanned nap when movement near the island on a sandbar caught her attention. Four shadowy figures appeared to be looking at the island. Not wanting to be seen, Eletra darted back into her cave hoping they hadn't noticed her. "That was close," she thought.

Hiccup was busy washing his face in a stream when he looked up; he slapped himself to ensure he wasn't hallucinating. Two dragons were coming into view, a Deadly Nadder and a Gronkle. The trees obscured his vision somewhat, but he was sure he'd seen Vikings on those dragons. Hiccup ran into a nearby open space shouting all the while. "STORMFLY! MEATLUG!". "Stormfly did you hear something?" Meatlug asked quietly to Stormfly not wanting to alert Fishlegs falsely. "Yeah I did hear something, It almost sounded like Hiccup." "STORMFLY! MEATLUG!" The two dragons heard it again louder this time, the sheer mass of silence swallowed most of the noise preventing the Vikings from hearing anything "Hiccup?" Both dragons said simultaneously. "You first" Meatlug offered. It took Astrid a moment to get over the shock of Stormfly's sudden move, but when she looked ahead of her dragon, she understood why. Hiccup was waving at her ecstatically. She felt her heart well up until it was inside her throat, a feeling of euphoria swept over her, knowing Hiccup was alive and relatively unharmed. She barely noticed the grime and filth of his clothes. "BEHIND YOU!" Stormfly screamed at Hiccup forgetting he wouldn't understand, for all of Hiccup's shouting allowed fright to locate him with ease. He'd wasted no time in hunting down the pesky Viking.

Hiccup spun around at the panicked squawk to see Fright in mid-jump, claws extended and death written in his eyes. A blast from Stormfly sent the stunned Monstrous Nightmare smashing into a tree and quickly scampering off. Hiccup just stood there stunned, he gulped realizing his excitement at being rescued nearly cost him his life. "Thank you, that dragon has been hunting me for days." "Wow, I've never seen that before," Fishlegs was stunned; he'd never seen a Monstrous Nightmare so enraged that it would want to torture its victim. While Astrid ensured nothing was seriously wrong with Hiccup, Fishlegs was noticing something very wrong with the situation. "Hiccup, where's Toothless?" Hiccup's expression saddened instantly, and he did not reply, he didn't need to. Astrid looked around also becoming aware of Toothless's absence. "You do know where Toothless is, right?" Astrid asked Hiccup unhappily. Both Vikings were amazed how Hiccup could've lost Toothless. "I can explain!" Hiccup said defensibly "It's been four days Hiccup, you should've found Toothless by now." "Thank you for summing that up; I needed to feel worse." Hiccup said looking at Astrid. "Are you two seeing this?" Fishlegs pointed towards the sky. It was growing dark at an alarming rate.

Astrid turned back to Hiccup, "You've been on this island four days. You've found shelter at least, right?" "regrettably… no" Astrid rolled her eyes, "Hiccup where are we supposed to sleep? On the ground outside to be frozen by the gods or roasted by a wild dragon!" "She does have a good point, chances of survival without protection are dismal at best." Hiccup slumped, "this was not what I was expecting," he said quietly. Astrid sighed and offered her hand to Hiccup once she'd remounted Stormfly. He faltered. "Hiccup, get on." Hesitantly he accepted her hand and climbed onto what little saddle was free. In a flash, the island was behind them, and Hiccup panicked, "Wait, Astrid we have to go back, Toothless is still down there somewhere. We can't just leave him." Astrid wasn't having any of it. "Hiccup, without shelter we're as good as dead on that island. We'll come back in the morning and find Toothless. He's been down there four days; he can survive one more night." While Hiccup did not jump off and swim back to the island, he was extremely displeased with Astrid's decision. He quickly wore himself out with protesting and only stopped when he nearly fell off the saddle from exhaustion. "Was that necessary Astrid? Hiccup's been thru a lot it seems since we saw him last." Fishlegs whispered to Astrid after Hiccup dozed off. "I was rough on him, wasn't I? I've just been so worried about him only to find out that not only has he not found Toothless, but he doesn't even have any shelter. What did he do while he was on that island?" Fishlegs nodded, "You're going to have a lot of explaining to do once he's himself again, you know that. Also, how is Hiccup not falling off?" Fishlegs asked, with Hiccup asleep on her saddle. "I think he said something about tying himself to the saddle." With that, the conversation ceased. The remainder of the trip back was spent in silence, letting Hiccup get some much-needed rest.

1Frost—I am aware that ice crystals might not form after a heavy rain, but for the sake of story continuity, it stays put.

2Blood ice—I am NOT referring to "Blood on the ice" by Blood ice, I mean ice that is made of frozen blood.

3 up until digit—Yes, that section went a little darker than I anticipated.


	9. Chapter 9

Ch.9

The trio landed on Berk in the early morning long before the sun would crest the horizon. Fishlegs, very tired and anxious to separate himself from Astrid, said his goodbyes and departed for his house. A minute or so later Stormfly arrived in front of the Haddock residence with a by now, totally awake Hiccup. "You're not coming in?" He asked, Astrid looked at him coldly, it was not him she was mad at, she was angry at herself. She didn't mean to come across as unfeeling, but there was too much going on inside for her to try and conjure an expression for Hiccup. "I guess not." Hiccup said his brain too frazzled to make sense of everything to make sense of the situation. Hiccup turned and opened the door but stopped, he looked back and found that Stormfly had gone, but Astrid just stood there. Frazzled Hiccup gestured inside and followed her lead.

Inside the fire that usually brightly burned away in the hearth was little embers unable even to finish the remains of a log. A short amount of heat emanated outward and Hiccup took a moment to take in the warmth. He gazed into the dying embers thinking. "Hiccup!" Valka re-entered the room and was immediately shocked to see Hiccup warming himself over the hearth like normal. Upon hearing Valka Hiccup turned, "Mom!" Valka reached out and hugged him, holding him tightly, as if he'd slip thru her fingers at any moment. "Hiccup, you're alright, I'm glad Astrid found you," It was then she realized there was no sign of Toothless, "You've put Toothless in the stable already?" For a brief second Hiccup allowed himself to pretend Toothless was in the dragon stables, safe, secure, and unharmed. "Hiccup?" The second ended, and Valka asked again, she was confused why he wouldn't answer such a simple question

"Toothless, is—" He gulped trying to force the words out. "still lost." It was all he could do to keep himself from collapsing, the few tears that ventured down his cheeks created little mud paths from the dust and grime. Hiccup did not look up to meet his mother's gaze or utter another word, "I'm, I'm sorry Hiccup." this was all she could think of to say. Hiccup remained motionless staring into the dying embers in the hearth. Valka quickly added a small log and didn't stop until the fire had reclaimed its former glory. For the first time since finding Hiccup back home, she looked around. Astrid was facing the fire, but no longer awake. Minutes went by, and the silence remained unbroken save the pop and crackle of the logs as flames devoured them from the inside. Finally, Valka said something, "I'm going to help Astrid find a suitable place to sleep." With that Hiccup was left to stare into the fire, accompanied by only his thoughts. Several minutes later she returned having found a place for Astrid to sleep until mid-morning. Valka finally spoke up, "Hiccup, think, Astrid knows you, she wouldn't abandon Toothless if there was a way rescue you both at the same time." Hiccup sighed, "no, she wouldn't." He then yawned and headed up to his bed, something he'd not seen in four days. He didn't even bother to change his clothing and was fast asleep within seconds.

"TOOTHLESS!" "TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup was running thru the trees, a black shadow always in the corner of his eye, but when he'd look for it— _it'd vanish_. "Think Hiccup, where would Toothless be?" The trees suddenly and seamlessly morphed into a ring of fire that trapped him as if in a cage. At the other end of the ring was a battle-scarred and nasty Monstrous Nightmare. Hiccup did not stumble and struck the dragon with a shield as the dragon miraculously traveled the vast distance between them in milliseconds. Hiccup's breath was heavy when he realized he'd killed the dragon. However, when Hiccup looked again too where the dragon should've been, another had taken its place. The neck sat at an unnatural angle; blood was everywhere. Hiccup looked to find his own hands and arms were dripping with blood—dragon blood. He madly flailed his arms trying to shake off the fresh blood. A single drop of blood detached itself and landed on the dead dragon in front of him. The dragon opened its eyes and Hiccup saw himself in the colorless orbs that stared back at him, stared right into his soul, his very being. Mere seconds later fire floated out and away from the mouth of the dragon and attached itself to the blood on his arms. Hiccup screamed, nothing. He screamed again. As if in response to his screams the forest melted into a sea of water, Hiccup soon found himself drowning. He squeezed his eyes shut before opening them again.

To Hiccup's great relief, he was no longer drowning. He was sitting upright in his bed, his already grimy and dirty clothes now soaking wet from the bucket of water Valka had doused him with to wake him. "Hiccup, you were screaming, change into some dry clothes and meet me downstairs by the hearth. We need to deal with this right away." Hiccup was too fear stricken from what he'd just experienced to say anything, he simply nodded. Once he heard Valka's footsteps on the stairs he changed into fresh clothes, the first clean pair in four days. It hadn't occurred to him that his screaming at awoken Astrid, it had. She sat bolt upright where she slept contemplating what to do. "Since I'm awake I might as well head back to my bed." Astrid left quietly deciding she'd check back in on Hiccup after they'd both rested.

Hiccup was unsure how to process what'd just happened. He just stood on the stairs losing himself in thought. A sneeze reminded him that he should be by the fire to warm up. Valka was waiting for him. She motioned for him to sit down with her at the fire to talk. "Hiccup, what happened to you? I heard you screaming. You wouldn't wake up..." Hiccup began to tell Valka from the beginning what'd happened and soon found he couldn't stop; it was like a waterfall, the more he talked, the more he remembered. When he'd finished explaining everything, including the nightmare, the fire had burned thru most of the logs and was a shadow of its former self. Both Vikings returned to their beds shortly afterward, Hiccup having to place a new dry fur on his, he had no intention of sleeping on a wet bed again. Hiccup slept thru the morning and into the afternoon, undisturbed by any thoughts or Vikings. He awoke briefly in the evening when he'd unknowingly hit a sore spot that sent pain shooting thru him. He sat up, adjusted his position grabbed the dry fur he'd knocked off and resumed sleeping. It was not widely known Hiccup was back either, neither Astrid or Fishlegs had talked about it and nobody had seen them land. Valka thought it was for the best, at least for the first day so he could get some uninterrupted rest.

1 This chapter wasn't nearly as emotional before I edited it. I like Moffat. There, I said it. (if that doesn't make sense, don't worry)

2Also if you want to listen to music while reading this, I listened to "Yanni, In the morning light" and "Cosmos, Giordano Bruno (2004)" in that order while writing this.


	10. Chapter 10

Ch. 10

"Something troubling you?" Cloudjumper appeared from behind a cloud startling Stormfly. "I don't see Valka with you." Stormfly shot back sharply, she was in a rotten mood and had no desire to pretend she was happy. An image of a Monstrous Nightmare mid-jump, with a crazed, bloodthirsty look in its eyes plagued her thoughts. "What makes you think something is bothering me" Stormfly was not in a talkative mood and hoped Cloudjumper would simply fly away, this, of course, did not happen. Cloudjumper said nothing but looked at her in disbelief. "If you must know Cloudjumper, I'm worried about Toothless; he wasn't with Hiccup when Meatlug and I found him. There was a Monstrous Nightmare, however, he nearly roasted Hiccup." Stormfly oddly felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her back having spoken her mind on the subject. "You sure the dragon was attacking Hiccup?" "I see quite well thank you." "My apologies," Cloudjumper backpedaled not having what he wanted yet.

She began to break away from Cloudjumper and proceeded to circle back to Berk. "How does this make you nervous about Toothless's well being?" The Stormcutter asked pushing the issue in hopes of getting the information he wanted. "Toothless would've found Hiccup long before we did, even without Hiccup shouting for him; if Toothless something hadn't found Hiccup, the shouts as we landed should've alerted him right away." Cloudjumper realized why Stormfly was so upset. "You think Toothless is injured and unable to find Hiccup? Hasn't Hiccup said anything about the four days he was on that island?" "All I know is what I heard from a Terrible Terror that overheard Hiccup talking to Valka. I don't believe most of it though. Always trying to stir up trouble by exaggerating things." Cloudjumper was curious as to what 'gossip' the terror had told her. "So? What is so unbelievable?"

Stormfly looked at the larger dragon perplexed, "why is this so important to him?" she thought before answering figuring it was the quickest way to make him leave. "I was told, 'a great rock punched Toothless out of the sky right as the sea reached up and grabbed Hiccup off the saddle. Hiccup tamed the sea and rode it to the island, while Toothless was swallowed by clouds and hasn't been seen since' that just doesn't sound right—at all." Cloudjumper tried very hard not to laugh the moment he heard the ridiculous tale but failed miserably. "That wasn't funny." Stormfly said displeased "If you find anything else let me know," Cloudjumper stated still chuckling before veering away.

Over the next few days, Stormfly became increasingly curious as to what kept Hiccup from returning to where she'd found him to look for Toothless. It also concerned her that Toothless hadn't returned, "is he dead?" began to float around in the back of her mind stirring up undesirable possibilities whenever it showed up. Her frequent flights with Astrid were kept unusually silent on the matter. "Before we rescued Hiccup, you wouldn't shut up about him. Now you don't talk about him at all." Stormfly thought to herself on the way back to Berk from a patrol flight with Astrid.

At the forge, Gobber waited for Hiccup to show up to finish all of the work he'd missed. "There you are. Thought you'd gotten yourself lost again." Gobber said urging Hiccup to work. "how thoughtful of you to remember" Hiccup replied sarcastically as he hobbled to his worktable.

Once Hiccup had eaten and gotten his bearings, he'd removed his prosthetic as it was badly damaged from the saltwater, frigid temperatures, and rust. The prosthetic he was using as an interim hadn't quite been tall enough, which was why he'd replaced it. Several hours later Hiccup was roused from his work by Astrid. "Valka said you would be here; haven't you finished that thing yet?" Astrid said looking at the pile of gears and wood pieces on Hiccup's workbench. "I—" "You've been back for over three days, and you still working on that?" She joked looking at the heap of cogs and gears on the table in front of her. "I only needed a few pieces from it; I'm about ready to try out the new pegleg." Hiccup stood up and promptly fell. "I should've expected that," he said getting up, Astrid just stood off to the side amused at the spectacle. "You said it was finished right?" Astrid teased helping him up after his third failed attempt to pick himself up off the floor. "When are you going to go back for Toothless? Astrid asked when they exited the forge. "let me get a few things, I'll meet you at the stables." "Just where do you think you're going? You still have work to finish, now let's get to it." Gobber said grabbing hiccups shirt. Hiccup was about to argue, Astrid could almost hear the words coming from Hiccup. "We'll find Toothless Hiccup; he'll be okay for one more night." With that Hiccup resigned himself to finishing the work that had piled up while he'd been away.


	11. Chapter 11

Ch. 11

Toothless awoke in a pool of moonlight that encircled him on the cave floor. He was confused. He'd awakened for no apparent reason from a lovely dream about finding Hiccup and returning to Berk. Looking across the cave he noticed that Eletra was still asleep, this realization confused him even further. "If she's asleep why did I wake up?" His mind was now fully awake trying to figure out this out. Toothless wandered onto the cave ledge to think. A light breeze picked up and rolled across his scales before disappearing. "Hiccup, where are you? I should've found you by now." These and other likeminded thoughts passed thru his head while he sat looking over the island. He continued to think about his time on the island and what could've happened to Hiccup for over an hour before going back inside the cave. When he woke for a second time not long after, he began to wonder if something—or someone was waking him up. It was still dark outside, and to his relief, nothing was waiting on the cave ledge trying to get inside.

"Eletra?" he whispered across the cave—no response. Concerned, Toothless moved to ensure she was alright. "She looks to be alright," he said quietly, she stirred and looked at him. "Hello? Could you move away a bit." She paused for a second before continuing, "why are you awake? What were you doing?!" Toothless was about to admit he'd been examining her, but he stopped, "that might not come across correctly" he thought. "I thought I saw movement and wanted to make sure you were alright." Eletra not having any of it looked Toothless in the eyes. Not a minute later she broke contact to allow her eyes to refocus before she looked back at him. "What is with your eyes? It..I..how..it was not a good feeling. Don't do that again, whatever you did." she said genuinely unsettled. With nothing else to say she sank back down to sleep, within minutes Toothless noticed she'd asleep. Having been woken twice on the opposite end of the cave, Toothless decided to sleep beside Eletra.

When Toothless awoke for a third time, daylight filled the cave casting shadows over both Night Furies. Toothless lurched back in surprise falling onto Eletra upon seeing the cave floor. She was not happy at being woken up in such an aggressive manner. "I trust you have a good reason for falling on me," she said quite irritated and a twinge bruised. "Look!" Toothless picked himself up so Eletra could look. Toothless had awoken to find the cave floor covered in oozy fire slime, including where he was previously sleeping before waking Eletra. He looked back at Eletra; she was seething. Toothless knew better than to be on the wrong side of a Night Fury's temper, and he quickly moved out of her way. "Don't let me stop you." Eletra smiled at him, in a flash she'd cleared a path thru the slime and was outside. Toothless casually walked to the cave entrance, in time to hear a blood culturing scream, a sickening crunch and the clatter of rocks as they rolled off the mountainside. "That sounded painful" Toothless thought with a snicker. He felt little remorse for a dragon who would attack another dragon in their sleep.

Walking onto the cave ledge, he saw nothing, "If you're looking for me, I'm up here." Toothless looked up and was greeted by a limp and very dead Monstrous that hadn't succumbed to gravity yet. "Did he put up a fight?" Toothless asked as Eletra landed on the cave ledge. The dead dragon was quickly losing traction and giving in to gravity. "He tried," Eletra noted as she watched a tree splinter and break that was in the path of the dead dragon. "Who was that?" Toothless asked as both tree and dragon tumbled down into the forest below. "I think its name was Ragetooth, but I can't be sure, I don't usually spy on Fright and his gang, too risky." "Who?" Toothless asked unaware of the history and bloodshed attached to the dragon. Eletra gave Toothless a dumbfounded look before remembering he'd been unconscious until two days ago.

"I forgot you don't know who he is. Fright is idiotic, murderous, and a very arrogant Monstrous Nightmare who arrived about two years ago. He brought his gang of likeminded Monstrous Nightmares and slaughtered any dragons he deemed a threat to him or his 'power.' Only a smattering of terrors are still alive here—that's if Fright hasn't located them again." Toothless was appalled and disgusted by what she described. "Why are you still here then? Furthermore, why are you alive if he and his gang have killed every dragon they deem a threat? You certainly pose a threat to them." Eletra smiled "I'll take that as a compliment." She continued, "Simply put, they haven't managed to kill me yet, that and they are idiots when it comes to combat." Toothless chuckled for a second. "If they are idiots at combat how is it every dragon on the island managed to die?" Eletra locked eyes with Toothless "Fright, and his gang ambushed them; at night, when they were eating, sleeping, whenever they weren't expecting it." Toothless was aghast. "Have they hurt you?" he found himself asking feeling a strange sense of protectiveness for her well-being. "I'm a female Night Fury, I leave battle scars to the males, like yourself. But If you must know, yes they've hurt me. but not physically, I—" she paused, "you don't want to know."

Changing the subject, she motioned to his prosthetic tailfin "That reminds me, I've wanted to ask this since I first encountered you. What is all this stuff attached to you? More importantly _, why do you have a fake tailfin!_ " She asked zealously. "I was wondering how long you were going to wait before asking" Toothless replied staring at her. He'd been puzzling over how best to bring up the subject and was glad she'd finally asked instead. "I lost my tailfin five years ago, ever since I've only been able to fly with the help of a Viking." "I hope she still respects me." Toothless thought as he mentally prepared himself for the onslaught he was certain he'd receive. Nothing happened. Opening his eyes, Toothless saw Eletra staring off into the middle distance, a memory clicking in her head. "It all makes sense now, how did I miss that!?" Toothless couldn't make sense of this. His only consolation was not being humiliated by one of his own kind. "Eletra? Eletra!" She snapped out of it looking at Toothless quizzically. "What makes sense?" Toothless wanted to know why she acted so strange upon stating he was friends with a Viking.

Unobserved under the forest canopy, two Monstrous Nightmares had arrived to examine the remains of Ragetooth. "Did you know about this Fright?" Flamewings asked looking at Fright still staring at the corpse in front of them. "If I'd known the location of that Night Fury's cave, I'd have put an end to her torment long ago. No, he didn't inform me of this development." "Striking out on his own perhaps?" Flamewings suggested, he'd previously thought Ragetooth had the foresight not to Attack Night Furies. "Makes no difference now, she saw to that." He stated answering Flamewings question. "Our group grows smaller." Fright murmured as he looked up at the sky and the rocky cliff-face. "With Ashes and Ragetooth gone, who is left?" Flamewings inquired. "Why should it matter? Only the Night Furies challenge my presence here. Soon they will be dead like the rest." Fright stated, "Yeah, well if you'd killed her before this new Night Fury had shown up instead of letting her stew in her misery, we wouldn't be in this fix." Flamewings stated in a rare moment of backbone.

"IF I HAD..why you!" "Fright, now don't do anything you'll regret," Flamewings said anxiously as Fright turned on him. ."Fright, if..if you kill me then who will help you attack the Night Furies?!" This stopped Fright from killing him, Flamewings was quite relieved at this development. "Your lucky Ragetooth died, or it'd be you in a crumpled heap here." Flamewings was once again reminded how little Fright cared about his subordinates, especially once they'd died. "Flamewings, I'm going to pay that stubborn Night Fury a visit." "Fright" he stopped and looked at Flamewings displeased with his hesitation. "I let you live this once, I won't do it twice." "Why don't we try and lure them apart to make it easier." "That isn't my style, coward." Fright, she's already on edge from Ragetooth, and certainly, that other Night Fury is ready for a fight as well. The chances of us living are slim at best." "fanged coward." "What's the use of killing everyone who opposes you if you don't stay alive to relish it?" Fright stopped and after a few seconds of consideration; agreed. "We'll attack them later when they aren't expecting it."

**Credit to Ilovechips4ever for pointing out several plot holes that could only be answered with "plot armor." I have reworded sections to create a solid answer to them in this chapter. [potentially future chapters as well.]


	12. Chapter 12

Ch.12

Toothless stared at her, "what makes sense?" Eletra blinked, "its—its nothing," she said dismissing the question. "Was it about Hi—the Viking I mentioned?" She looked at him; "I'm not sure, let me collect my thoughts." Soon both dragons were looking in opposite directions, one thinking about Hiccup, the other about the reaction the Viking had upon seeing her. Toothless looked out over the expanse of island wondering if Hiccup was still there; he'd begun to suspect that Astrid or Valka had rescued him while he was unconscious. "I haven't heard Hiccup at all, not once, it is a fairly small island, I would've heard Hiccup shouting for me. I'll check once more; maybe I've just missed him." He thought before taking off as quiet as possible—which turned out to be not silent at all. Eletra was alerted to his departure by the shrill sound of his metal tailfin scrapping against the rock as he left.

By unlucky coincidence, this sound masked the sound of claws scrapping over the rocks above Eletra's cave. "He can fly, so why hasn't he left?" she was confused, "He acts stranded here, but he clearly is not. Why does he persist in staying?" It was then she realized what he'd said earlier, "he needs a Viking to help him fly properly." She repeated to herself. She thought back to what the Viking had said to her. For the first time since she discovered Toothless, Eletra was conflicted. She knew that informing Toothless his Viking had been rescued by a Deadly Naddar and a Gronkle was the right thing, but she didn't want him to leave. "If I don't tell him, he might be resentful later on." The thought pained her, and she didn't want him to leave, her life would feel empty and dull without him now.

Above Eletra's cave, three Monstrous Nightmares crept closer being as quiet as three Monstrous Nightmares could be. "Fright, you sure this will work?" Inferno asked, his confidence level quite low, Not once had Fright or any other dragon successfully attacked this Night Fury and it worried Inferno a great deal. "Quiet you fool; you'll give us away!" Fright hissed not bothering to tell Inferno he would likely be the first to die. "Something isn't right. She should've heard us by now" Flamewings observed noticing how calm she was. "Fright" "quiet" "Fright!" Inferno hissed again, the panic evident in his voice."What is—" Fright turned to glare at Inferno, only to see the other Night Fury flying beneath them searching for something "He hasn't seen us, don't so much as breath wrong—I won't have the trouble of killing you if we are found out." Fright hissed as Toothless glided below them scanning the ground. Fright's warning unnerved Inferno, who was already on edge. Inferno briefly lost his hold and knocked a few pebbles loose while regaining his grip on the mountain. A reasonably quiet sound, but the rocks kept bouncing making more and more noise

The look of horror in Fright's eyes was evident. Fright froze watching his plan fall apart, as the rock supporting Inferno exploded, everything slowed to a crawl, Fright caught a glimpse of the terror in Inferno's eyes as he fell. "YOU FOOL! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL!" Fright screamed sending a blast of fire at the Inferno, who remained motionless, paralyzed with fear. Eletra, if not already alerted to their presence by part of the mountain exploding, Frights screams confirmed it. Looking up Eletra was shocked to find Fright so close above her. Flamewings locked Eyes with Eletra after turning to see Inferno vanish from the mountain. In that brief moment, Eletra felt as if Flamewings wanted no part in attacking her. A scream from Inferno brought Eletra back to the fight and she landed a plasma blast on Flamewings muzzle, temporarily blinding him. Toothless had, by now, circled around and was preparing to land and ensure Eletra was alright.

But then the unthinkable happened, Fright let loose with a deluge of fire slime at Eletra. Toothless, without hesitation, dove between Eletra and the cascade of fire, preventing her from being harmed. It was a fiery sensation as the burning slime rolled off his scales. The feeling was quickly replaced with a searing pain from his saddle and gear against his scales. He strained as the downforce increased as Flamewings angered by the plasma blast added to the mass of sticky fire gel. It decreased in intensity as Fright exhausted his supply of fire shortly after. Toothless thought that Eletra, who was pinned beneath him, had said something but he couldn't hear them. Toothless was becoming increasingly fed up with the show of power from the Monstrous Nightmares. At that moment Inferno rejoined the fight and added a second stream of fire to the cascade. "ENOUGH!" It was a scale splitting, mind-numbing scream that stopped the three dragons cold.

It was immediately apparent to the Monstrous Nightmares that they'd picked a fight with the wrong dragon. As the slime rolled off his scales, Toothless was glowing an iridescent blue with the remains of his saddle and gear smoldering on his back. Eletra, all the while, struggled to free herself from her pinned state. The three dragons were mortified, a glowing Night Fury was not an ordinary sight. Toothless removed himself from Eletra and took a more offensive stance at the attackers. Inferno was dispatched in one supercharged plasma blast, as his charred body fell from the mountain Flamewings and Fright began to retreat. For Flamewings it was already too late, with two quick supercharged plasma blasts, he and his severed right wing fell from the mountain as well. Fright was scared clean out of his scales and was flying away when Toothless fired a blast and punctured Fright's right-wing knocking him out of the sky, sending him plummeting towards the forest.

Eletra stood there aghast, staring at Toothless her mind blank. It was several seconds before the iridescence faded and Eletra could see patches of Toothless's scales looked a dull, unfinished darkish grey. "What are you!?" She finally spat out, Petrified by what she'd witnessed. " I am a Night Fury, just like you," Toothless exclaimed indigently. "I just happen to be the Alpha." He stated. Eletra was stunned, "Alpha? The dragons that control every other dragon if they so choose? But—How?" "I'm sure one of the other dragons will tell you," Toothless said, momentarily forgetting he wasn't on Berk. "other dragons? We're the only dragons here." "On Berk, Where I live" This didn't answer her question at all, and she desperately wanted an answer. "I should put my tailfin out." He said as if it was completely normal to extinguish one's tail.

The pair took off for a pond so Toothless could clean himself off and begin to recoat his scales. The extent of the damage became apparent when he took flight and nearly fell into the forest. He managed to position himself into a somewhat steady glide until they reached a pond, As Toothless extinguished the what remained of his saddle and tailfin, Eletra thought about the what Toothless's action meant. "I wonder if he'll ask me to be his mate?" was the question on her mind when Toothless came over to her, water dripping off his scales, which already had begun to recover, it would take several hours for the coating to set in properly. "Toothless?" "Yes, Eletra?" "Why did you put yourself in harm's way for me?" This triggered a flashback for Toothless to the very brief moments when Hiccup had both a mother and a father again. That memory faded into one he wished hadn't happened, the memory had the sharpness of a half-forgotten drunken dream. Stoick taking the impact of his plasma blast in place of Hiccup. "Toothless?" Toothless looked at Eletra who was staring at him expectantly. "I was protecting the one I love." In Toothless's mind, he tacked on, "and paying down a debt I owe."


	13. Chapter 13

Ch.13

This statement didn't register fully in Eletra's mind for several minutes. Shocked by his actions, part of her attempted to find some ulterior motive to what'd happened. She sat on the shore watching Toothless as he tried to check the state of his gear. "Could he just be repaying me for saving his life? Does he plan on acting on his statement?" Eletra couldn't make sense of his action or his unwillingness to talk about it. "Toothless?" He looked up from what remained of his gear at her. "Yes?" "Why did you do it? I want to know." Toothless's expression tensed before answering.

"I already told you I did it because I love you." "Why did you tense up when I asked if it was out of love? Is there some darker, more sinister reason?" "NO—" he blurted out before he could stop himself. "nothing like that, I couldn't let it happen to you." A noise caught the attention of both Night Furies ending the conversation. "something's not right, I heard something. I'll go investigate, stay here." Eletra said darting off into the forest before Toothless could say anything in reply. "Why is she so critical of my affection? What scars keep making her question herself and me for that matter?" Toothless was puzzled and worried. "Was there really a noise?" He thought before washing his scales once more, the coating having only recently cured.

Toothless washed his scales, and what remained of his gear, but was confused. "Perhaps I was too abrupt?" A few minutes later, Eletra hadn't returned, so he left and walked to the small cove where he'd enjoyed breakfast a few days ago. He hadn't expected to find Eletra there, so it didn't come as a surprise when she wasn't there. "She's off investigating a strange noise," he told himself. Finding a spot on the grass in the sun, he closed his eyes to rest, his muscles beginning to ache. Toothless hadn't rested long when he heard a dragon not too far off. He'd been ignoring the sound as it grew louder thinking it to be an illusion, but soon he gave in and looked up. A single Deadly Nadder was approaching. Toothless was unsure whether to alert the dragon, presumably Stormfly, to his location or not. "Stormfly? Is that you?" He called out deciding to take a chance and alert the dragon. "TOOTHLESS?!" Stormfly screeched a little too excited. "Where?" How? But I…" The Deadly Nadder was quite flustered and excited to have found her friend.

"What is it, girl? Did you find something?" Astrid asked noticing her dragon had tensed significantly. "Astrid, It's Toothless!" Hiccup exclaimed looking at Toothless who noticed Hiccup at the same moment. "I knew he couldn't be dead." Toothless felt days of stress and worry fall away from him like water. He stood a little taller, stronger and with more confidence. Stormfly landed opposite him in the cove and gasped upon seeing the bedraggled Night Fury. "What happened to you! You're a mess!" she stated shocked. "It's a long story, a long story." The aches and pain accumulated over the past nine days began to scream for attention, his mind no longer preoccupied with worry for Hiccup.

Hiccup ran over to his dragon ecstatic to be reunited and squashed any doubts about Toothless being dead."Toothless! Bud! Ah, I'm so glad you're alive. I was worried sick about you." Hiccup said hugging Toothless's muzzle. Astrid walked over to examine Toothless to find he was a mess. "Toothless, what happened to you? You look awful." Hiccup heard this and stepped back to look at his dragon properly. "That could be a problem; the gears have melted together. Toothless how did this happen?" Hiccup was dumbfounded how the flight controls had sustained so much damage, with Toothless only looking a bit dusty.

Meanwhile, also on the island, an enraged Monstrous Nightmare had cornered the second Night Fury. Eletra for all her grace and agility wasn't adept at repelling a dragon who'd ambushed her. She'd chosen long ago to focus on knowledge and wisdom rather than honing her ability to hold her own in an unfair dragon fight. She often found this to be to her benefit. However, this was not one of those times. While thinking about what Toothless had said, she'd left herself vulnerable to attack. Fright, who happened to be limping by, noticed and was quick to take advantage of this lapse in her awareness. "You think you've won, don't you?" Fright spat after she'd successfully distanced him with a plasma blast. "You and that… _insult_ killed what remained of my empire, but there will always be dragons that follow my path." Fright said overconfidently. He was hoping that somehow this would dishearten the Night Fury allowing him to attack her in a weakened mental state. His words meant nothing to her, except one little word. "That _insult_ is my friend you murderous tyrant." Eletra made a move to lunge at his neck, Fright dodged, but Eletra had counted on this, and she put a plasma blast into the base of his left wing, dislocating it. Fright screeched and fled. "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME NIGHT FURY!" as he disappeared into the forest.

Once Fright vanished, Eletra's adrenaline rush died, and she discovered she'd sustained several scratches from Fright. "The nerve of that...of that...Nightmare." Her thoughts soon shifted to Toothless, and how he was faring. "I should go back and make sure Fright didn't pay him a visit as well." she thought he'd shouted something earlier but couldn't remember what. She rushed back to the pond they'd been at but found it deserted. There was no evidence of a battle and no disturbance to indicate where he went. "Where did he go?!" she questioned. Then she heard it, and she paused, "voices?" she listened again and indeed found that voices were not too far away. Following the sounds, she arrived at the cove Toothless had discovered when he'd awoke. She spotted Toothless and was about to jump down to meet him when she noticed that he was not alone. A Deadly Naddar and two Vikings were fussing over a pile of wood that was on fire. She ducked back out of sight of the Vikings, wondering if Toothless would notice her. She did not have to wait long, as Hiccup, Astrid and Stormfly fussed over the fire, Toothless lay down to rest but felt uneasy as if somebody was watching him, he looked around and soon spotted her.

His look confused her. It looked torn, very happy yet equally sad all at once. "Get back, they'll see you!" With that, Eletra left, puzzled as to his odd behavior. With little else to do, Eletra retreated to her cave, dozing off with thoughts of her mother and what she might think of Toothless. Several hours later she awoke to a moon-drenched sky and was ecstatic that the Monstrous Nightmare hadn't the smarts to kill her while she slept. For the first time in days Eletra took to the night sky, after a slow flight and a quick circle around the mountain, she returned to her cave. Her heart sank when she realized that Toothless was not there waiting for her. "How could I've missed that when I woke up?" As she lay back down, she realized how empty her cave was without Toothless. For the first time in a long time, she felt out of place in the cave. "Be safe Toothless. I love you." She exclaimed, before closing her eyes again.

Toothless looked up at the sky that night after Hiccup had gone to sleep wishing he'd told Eletra more about his past. What he wanted most, was to escape from Hiccup to ask Eletra to be his mate and live with him on Berk. This, however, was impossible. Hiccup was sleeping underneath one of his wings as a protection from the cold. "Toothless, anything the matter? You seem troubled." Stormfly spoke up rousing Toothless from his thoughts. Toothless looked up to see Stormfly staring at him. "Everything's…it's nothing, don't worry about it." Toothless did not want to talk about Eletra to Stormfly and quickly closed the conversation turning his head away and closing his eyes. Stormfly was confused by his dismissive and troubled answer but decided it would be better to question him on the way back to Berk the next morning. "Better to not wake up Hiccup, he might panic." She thought before closing her eyes as well.


	14. Chapter 14

Ch.14

The morning found Hiccup wrapped in thick furs under a starless black sky—or what Hiccup thought was a starless black sky. A minute later the heavens moved. A streak of light crept in to reveal the night-sky was, in fact, the underside of one of Toothless's wings. Toothless was quick to move, forcing Hiccup to come to terms with the new day; weather and all. It took him a second to remember why he'd been sleeping under his dragon's wing wrapped in furs, and then it hit him. "Was that necessary?" Hiccup said rubbing his left shoulder where Astrid had tossed a pebble. "Stormfly thought so," Astrid said patting her dragon on the muzzle. "Hiccup, we found Toothless, and it's daylight. Let's head back. This island feels wrong. Stormfly keeps nervously checking the forest." Hiccup nodded, he knew several reasons why Stormfly would feel very uneasy on the island. He looked to his dragon eager to leave as well.

"Toothless you ready bud?" Toothless, however, was not bubbling with enthusiasm, as Hiccup expected. "Toothless, that Monstrous Nightmare isn't going to follow us to Berk." This statement did nothing to change his dragons somber attitude. "Toothless, is it something else?" Hiccup kneeled looking his dragon in the eyes. Toothless blinked and looked away, shaking off Hiccup's gaze. "I—I, I'm sorry Eletra, I'll come back for you. I promise." Toothless whispered to himself. Toothless made his best attempt to look happy and smiled at Hiccup. "I'll meet you in the air Hiccup, don't be too long." As climbed onto what remained of his saddle he thought about how Toothless had reacted to leaving. He couldn't get over the strange feeling that his dragon didn't want to leave the island. "Did he find something? Unfinished business maybe?" Hiccup's thoughts whirled trying to find an answer, after running thru a few possibilities Hiccup brushed the thoughts aside and looked at the sky. "C'mon bud, let's go home. "

"What's bothering that dragon? How could Hiccup not see the torment on Toothless's face?" Stormfly's curiosity didn't have to wait long, as Toothless and Hiccup were quick to follow. "Toothless why do you want to stay here on this island? Alone I might add." Toothless felt a sigh of relief that Eletra had not yet been discovered, he wasn't sure yet how to introduce her to Berk. "Do I tell her? What should I say?" Toothless thought as Stormfly eyed him expectantly. "I—I" Toothless paused before continuing trying to find the right words. "You love your younglings, right?" Stormfly was taken aback by such a direct question. "yes, of course, I love them, how could I not?" Toothless continued, "How did you feel seeing them for the first time?" "Toothless, how is this at all related to what I asked?" "Humor me." Stormfly sighed, "It was the best feeling I've ever had, overwhelming joy and happiness. Now answer my question!" "is something wrong girl?" Astrid felt Stormfly tense; there was no immediate danger, so Astrid quickly resumed her conversation with Hiccup.

Stormfly was happy Astrid had gone back to her conversation leaving Toothless on the hook to answer her. "That's how I felt on that island." Stormfly let out a surprised squawk earning Astrid's full attention believing her dragon had found danger close-by. "Stormfly, what is it?" Stormfly however, tried very hard to act normal and relaxed. "Hiccup, does Stormfly look alright to you?" "She looks tense, but otherwise, yeah, she looks fine." Hiccup observed while keeping a tight grip on Toothless. "But you were alone on that island! Toothless do you realize what you are saying." Stormfly was now completely invested in the conversation and nearly forgot Astrid was there. "I met another Night Fury; she saved my life. I've been asleep until three days ago. She healed me." Stormfly fell silent upon hearing this news. "A female Night Fury? Toothless found a Night Fury? A female? Toothless fell in love with a Night Fury? Toothless fell in love? TOOTHLESS IS IN LOVE?!" This was all Stormfly could think, the conversation ended there with Stormfly astonished.

"Hiccup, is Toothless acting strange? Stormfly is not acting like herself at all. She seems—in shock." Astrid asked bewildered by the jerky and surprised movements coming from her dragon. "Yeah, I got the feeling he didn't want to leave that island. I didn't see anything that might make him want to stay." "Did you see anything when you rescued me?" he asked looking at Astrid. "Nope, maybe Toothless wasn't as lost as you on that island." Hiccup gave Astrid a puzzled look but said nothing."Hiccup, you were on Berk for several days before managing to get away to rescue Toothless." Hiccup received a displeased snort from Toothless before Astrid could continue. "Why didn't you think to bring an older tail assembly in case Toothless's was damaged?" "ugh, Astrid we just went over this. Why do you want to remind that I simply forgot". "because Toothless is struggling to stay in the air. We should land and allow him to rest." It was true. Toothless was having to put significantly more effort into flying than normal due to his destroyed and nearly unusable tail-fin. Astrid had started to look for places to land when Hiccup spoke up again. "Astrid, if we do land, it's going to be much harder for Toothless to take off again, it might be easier just to keep going and rest at Berk." Toothless was quick to slap Hiccup with an earflap. "OW!" Toothless grumbled but after thinking it over agreed and gave a grudgingly kept flying.

It was mid-day when Hiccup and Astrid arrived back on Berk, Toothless did not know what to feel, happiness to be home, sadness for leaving Eletra or exhaustion from having to correct his flight pattern so often on the way back to Berk. "Hiccup, you probably should take what's left of Toothless's saddle with you to the forge, it won't do any good on Toothless now." Astrid noted as the pair neared Hiccup's house. "hold still bud, just got to get this off you. I wonder how it got damaged like this?" Hiccup wondered as he removed the various apparatuses keeping the saddle on Toothless. When Hiccup had removed all the equipment, Toothless was saddened. "At least with that on, I had a chance to return to Eletra." This sadness did not go unnoticed by Hiccup, feeling as if all of Toothless's discomfort was because of his actions, Hiccup vanished into his house. Toothless looked at the door puzzled, "not even a goodbye? Must've hit his head when we crashed." Several long minutes later Hiccup returned with an older, unfinished tail-fin. "Toothless, you'll have to use this until I can make you a new tailfin. It's the only one I could find; I must've dismantled the others."

"Wait, is that? No, It couldn't be, I destroyed that tailfin years ago, but I've never seen this tailfin." Hiccup proceeded to secure the unfamiliar tailfin In place before his dragon realized which tailfin it was. Toothless looked for Stormfly to ask her opinion of the tailfin but Astrid and Stormfly had left. "Toothless, I've got it laced up for you. I don't know how well this will work, I've had to make some changes over the years. Sorry I never showed you this tailfin, I didn't want you to destroy it like the first one". Rasing his tailfin, he found it was another autonomous tailfin, quite basic in functionality and design much like his original that proved such an idea was possible. "With this—I—I could return to Eletra." Toothless gave Hiccup a grin and ran off into the forest. Hiccup called after him but didn't follow, he had work to be done at the forge and was much too slow to run after his dragon.

Cloudjumper found Toothless in the late afternoon sun sitting on a cliff overlooking the sea. "Toothless? I heard you'd returned." He looked at Cloudjumper glad to see a friend that he could talk with in confidence. "You miss her? What's she like?" Toothless nearly fell over in shock. "How—how did you find out?" Toothless was beginning to regret telling Stormfly about Eletra, even vaguely. "Valka was talking to me about Hiccup thinking you didn't want to come back and he wasn't sure why. Here I find you staring longingly into the horizon. I assume the island is this direction then?" "How did you know? That's a lot of assumptions" Toothless said trying to mask his surprise. "Stormfly is a terrible liar," Cloudjumper admitted, pleased with the reaction he'd received.

Toothless relaxed realizing Cloudjumper had found out from Stormfly and not a pile of assumptions, for his reaction had most certainly confirmed them all. "She told you? I should've not said anything. I don't want this getting around just yet I'm afraid she'd attract a lot of unwanted attention." "She told me that you'd found a female Night Fury." Toothless thought this over deciding whether to fill in the details or not for the Stormcutter. "Yes, I do miss her, I didn't get a chance to ask her to be my mate, or even tell her that I was leaving, I just—left." Toothless looked at the ground ashamed. "Look at you. You're a Night Fury, Toothless the Alpha, yet you sit here on this cliff and lament what could've been." Toothless realized Cloudjumper was right, "thank you, I know what I need to do." "You're—" but Toothless leaped off the cliff and plummeted instantly, he appeared a few seconds later near sea level and quickly heading for the horizon. "—welcome…be safe Alpha." Cloudjumper said, stunned by how quickly Toothless reacted to his pep talk. "That went well." He thought as he watched Toothless disappear into the horizon.

"Birds? Was it birds? I could've sworn it was.." Eletra was found herself in a meadow which wasn't unusual, but the sound she heard was unusual. "It's not possible," She said staring up at a tree making very dragon-like noises. She blinked and looked again to find that three Night Fury hatchlings were staring at her expectantly. "WHAT!" Eletra jumped back shaken. "LOKI WHAT DEVILRY IS THIS!?" Eletra shouted aghast. Within seconds the hatchlings vanished in a small fireball. The fireball smoldered, and soon began to ooze out of the nest, Eletra watched in horror as everything around her slowly morphed into flames. She desperately looked for a way out, "You will not escape again." Eletra's eyes shot open at this, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was nothing but a dream. Suddenly there was a sickening crack from outside, followed by the sound of something large tumbling down the mountainside. "what?" it was then Eletra noticed the trademark fire slime of the Monstrous Nightmare. "I hope you like your Monstrous Nightmares burnt," Toothless said from outside. Eletra wasted no time in darting out of her cave to meet Toothless. "I prefer Night Furies actually," she replied, quickly distancing herself from the mountain and not looking back.


	15. Chapter 15

Ch. 15

For the most part the experimental tailfin worked as expected, Toothless rarely had to correct his flight, but his exhaustion was gaining the upper hand—nevertheless, he smiled at Eletra as he hovered. "what's wrong?" "We need to go—now." Toothless turned and sped away knowing Eletra would follow him. As expected, she caught up with him in no time. "where are we—" Eletra started to ask, but as she got close to him, she noticed his tailfin was repaired, and yet, it looked different than before. "Your…tail!" Eletra said flying up alongside him. "I came back Eletra. I came back for you. Will you be my mate?" This profound declaration of love made her completely lose her balance and just barely remain in the air. Toothless could see the shock on her face; she was not expecting that. "Please say yes, please say yes." Toothless thought as Eletra struggled to regain her composure. "Too—I—I" Eletra sputtered. "YES!" Eletra finally shouted, she could hardly speak. Toothless was ecstatic, Eletra had said yes to being his mate. He fully intended to thank Cloudjumper for the second opinion that boosted his confidence enough to come back for her. He had trouble remembering why he'd been unsure about coming back at all.

A light rain began as the two Night Furies neared Berk, Toothless ordinarily indifferent to rain quickened his pace. "Toothless? Is everything alright?" Eletra asked worriedly. Toothless didn't look at Eletra and instead circled away from the bright part of the island that shown like a beacon in the intensifying rain. "Toothless, Where are you headed?" Eletra asked keeping pace with the exhausted Night Fury. "Berk," was the only reply she would get that night. Soon the two dragons lay near each other sheltered from the rain by a dense covering of trees. "This is Berk? This island has a name? How peculiar, why does it need a name? Is Toothless hiding something from me? Is that why he didn't want me to get too close to the brightly lit areas?" These questions and much more flooded Eletra's head as she struggled to come to grips with all that had transpired in that day. It felt like an entirely different life when she thought about before Toothless had arrived on her island. "All I used to do was explore various islands nearby, eat, sleep and avoid Fright. How was I content with that?" Eletra thought curious how she'd been okay leading such a dull life. Finally, she lay her head down, closed her eyes and began to dream of her mother.

Eletra awoke to the dripping of rain runoff on her muzzle. "Wha? Where am I?" She looked around at the dark partly cloudy sky and remembered where she was and what'd happened. "It's…beautiful," she said looking at the unfamiliar patch of sky, the faintest tendrils of light started to separate the sky and the sea. Eletra was awestruck, for all the time she'd spend on her island she hadn't paid much attention to the rising and setting sun, beyond it waking her in the mornings. "how could I've missed this?" Eletra thought as the sky become a wet watercolor canvas with streaks of bright yellow running everywhere, dying the clouds a pastel orange as the color radiated outward. She followed the warm light as it beat back the darkness until it fell upon Toothless only a few feet from her. Eletra stared, frozen in place.

Toothless didn't have anything attached to him, save his autonomous fake tailfin. She was thankful Toothless hadn't woken up with the sunrise as she did, for she was staring at him unashamedly. "I—I, Toothless, you're magnificent." Eletra murmured in wonderment. "I knew you were attractive when all that stuff was attached to you but I never imagined…this," she said softly, not wanting to wake him. The morning light that had so wonderfully illuminated Toothless dissipated as the Sun said its goodbyes to the sea and began its daily travel across the sky. She finally tore her eyes away from her new mate and was flooded with thoughts and emotions she'd long since buried. "I love you Toothless." The full impact of Toothless's proposal hadn't yet sunk in as she was still capable of forming complete thoughts. It would be some time before it truly set in. In the meantime, Eletra stood ready to explore her new home, and it was then she noticed Toothless's tail once more. One real tailfin, the other tailfin resembled a tailfin but looked far from natural. It sent a chill thru her, and she wasn't sure why. Eletra knew Toothless only had one tailfin, and it only served to improve his standing in her mind. "that looked painful. " was her only thought on the matter before leaving to find answers to her questions elsewhere on Berk.

Not wanting to draw unwanted attention from Berk's inhabitants, whoever they were, Eletra begrudgingly refrained from flying and walked. "Maybe I'll find a dragon that can explain what this place is." With this thought in the forefront of her mind, she searched all over the forested areas of Berk trying to find answers. Eletra found no shortage of dragons going about their day but no dragons that took any special notice of her or what she said. It occurred to her that the dragons must've mistaken her for Toothless and didn't pay any attention to the differences. One dragon, however, did notice. "What's a Night Fury doing so far from home? Did you get lost?" the Windstriker asked as if she'd talked with Eletra dozens of times. Eletra tensed not wanting to recall the memory of why she left home anytime soon. Noticing this, the Windstriker eased off and did not ask again. "Please, if it causes you pain, do not think about it. But can you tell me what brings an attractive female Night Fury to Berk?" In Eletra's mind, she pictured Toothless sleeping with the morning sun reflecting off his scales, and she smiled.

"I should've guessed." Eletra snapped out of it and looked to the Windstriker who was staring at her. "Toothless, the resident Night Fury. Been on or near Berk since before the defeat of the Red Death, or so I hear." Eletra was confused, "or so you hear?" she asked, it was the Windstrikers turn to tense up; "we all have our bad memories dear, just like how you came to be here is painful for you, how I came here is troubling for me. " Eletra felt bad; she hadn't wanted to upset the only dragon that bothered to speak with her. "As I said, I'm still new to this island. If you want a good idea of what goes on here, Stormfly would be a good choice." The dragon said cheering up. Eletra was about to inquire who Stormfly was when the Windstriker spoke yet again. "No, she won't do; a bit of a gossip that one, hmmm…Cloudjumper is good. He's still somewhat new here as well, but he picks up on things fast. Dependable too." Eletra was starting to think she'd need to interrupt to speak. Luckily she didn't have to. "Is there anything you still want to ask me? I'll help however I can. "

Eletra was relieved she didn't have to interrupt. "what does Cloudjumper look like? You've told me nothing about him, and I haven't even found out what your name is." The Windstriker was initially taken aback by this but realizing she'd not said anything useful did not take offense. "Please forgive me, Cloudjumper is a fully grown Stormcutter, four wings with head frills; can't mistake him. As for my name, it's Percilla. Yours is..?" Eletra paused, not out of suspicion but whether to give her real name or not. "I don't think it'd do any harm to give out my name," she thought, "Eletra, my names Eletra." "Fabulous, well, I should be going, Melancholy does worry so when I'm away. I hope everything works out for you." With that the Windstriker flew off, Eletra cared not where. Instead of wondering who Percilla was referring to, Eletra tried to remember if she'd seen a four-winged dragon during her exploration of Berk.

Cloudjumper was in fact, not on Berk at all; he was with Valka seeking out and destroying dragon trapper's camps and then liberating any dragons they'd caged. Valka had, some time ago, gone back to her abandoned dragon sanctuary and recovered everything she could. This recovery allowed her to reconstruct her armor, with a few improvements courtesy of Hiccup's mechanical know-how. Eletra, of course, did not know this, so when Cloudjumper did return, she was not expecting or ready for the mysterious thing on the Stormcutters neck. "Are you Cloudjumper?" Eletra called up to him as the dragon flew by overhead. "Did something call me?" Cloudjumper thought as he passed over Eletra not giving it much thought. His curiosity quickly spiked and he and circled back wondering what could've called him.

"Alright, we'll see what's down here and then go log our findings," Valka said to herself feeling Cloudjumper begin to turn. "Wait? That's Toothless, why would Tooth-le-ss." The thought trailed off in the dragon's mind when he saw Eletra and that she had two intact tailfins. "I—I thought Toothless imagined her." Cloudjumper landed in front of Eletra now more curious than ever. "Cloudjumper?" Eletra stated questioningly, "Yes?" Eletra then noticed the very strange looking..thing next to him. Eletra quickly jumped back frightened. Valka quickly removed her head-coverings and gave Eletra a quick once-over. "That thing is a Viking?!" She said shocked, Eletra quickly fled with only a fearful look as her goodbye. "Wait! Night Fury, she's friendly!" Cloudjumper called after Eletra but it was no use, Eletra had disappeared. "Cloudjumper we need to find her, she must be half mad with fright." Valka was worried that she might injure herself being frightened on an unfamiliar island. "There must be some reason a second Night Fury is on Berk; I didn't even think anymore existed."

Frightened, Eletra ran until she unknowingly ran out of ground. When Eletra realized she was falling, the water was only seconds away to greet her. "ACK! I hadn't planned on taking a swim today" Eletra quickly exited the water and calmed herself down, looking around she discovered she'd fallen into a cove of some kind. "I didn't catch your name before" Eletra looked up[ to see Cloudjumper had appeared above the cove. "Who Is that with you?" Cloudjumper landed, without answering. Valka dismounted Cloudjumper to examine the new Night Fury closer, or so she hoped. Eletra stared at Valka trying to make sense of what she saw. "I'm not going to harm you. I didn't think any dragons like Toothless remained ." Eletra wanted to trust this Viking, and she wanted to get some answers to her questions. "This, this is all so new I don't…" Eletra said just before leaving once again, this time, however, she flew. Valka was curious to see why another Night Fury was on Berk but feared pursuing the dragon any further might make it leave Berk. "I wonder If Toothless knows anything about this?" Valka found herself wondering.


	16. Chapter 16

Ch.16

It was going on mid-day when Eletra returned to Toothless after evading Cloudjumper in the cove. Toothless was awake, but only recently. "I wondered where you'd gone off to; I'm glad you're alright." Eletra wanted to say what'd happened to her while he slept but found she could not. Toothless stretched his wings and moved, he looked back at Eletra puzzled. "Aren't you coming with me? I didn't think you wanted to say in this spot all day." Toothless resumed walking, only a few seconds when by before he heard the unmistakable sounds of Eletra behind him. "Where are we going?" she called up to him, curious. "There's a cove I often go to relax. It has water, shade, sunny areas and even a few fish swimming in the pond. I thought that would be a good place to ask me any questions you still have." Eletra blinked, "I wonder if he's referring to the pond that I stumbled across earlier today?" she thought and hoped Cloudjumper had left. It did not take long to reach the cove, and to Eletra's relief, it was deserted. "You okay?" "Huh?" Toothless was looking at her, a puzzled look on his face. "Me? Oh, I'm…I'm in a daze. I mean so much has happened and it's just a lot to take in." Toothless nodded and jumped down to the grassy cove bottom without another word.

"Should I tell him now? Or should I tell him later?" Eletra looked over at Toothless who was attempting to catch a fish in his mouth. He looked up realizing she was staring at him, "Yes?" "Oh don't yes me, you've been stalling about telling me about this place, now what is it that I shouldn't know?!" Eletra stated frustrated. She hadn't meant to come across as rude but the knowledge of knowing she knew nothing about the island frustrated her. Toothless's eyes narrowed, and he took a step back in surprise. "I..I'm sorry. I didn't want you to be upset." Eletra said regretting her previous words. Toothless's eyes dilated once more, and he positioned himself beside his new mate. "Eletra, you're right, I've not told you anything about where we are. You've followed me here on a promise. I'm sorry." Eletra was shocked, "I am? Th-thank you." Toothless nudged her muzzle with his own before starting.

"This is Berk, and I believe I told you that before we landed, what I didn't tell you is the brightly lit area comprises of Vikings, Vikings, and dragons of all sorts. I didn't want you to land like it was no big deal in the middle of that. "But It wouldn't be a big deal; there are still a lot of Night Furies left. We just hide in the shadows, which does bring up the question of how you are here." Toothless looked pointedly at her before continuing. "Berk believes that I am the last of my kind and therefore would be shocked and overjoyed to learn that another Night Fury has shown up." "What's wrong with that? Are you saying you'd rather keep me hidden in the shadows while you continue to be the last Night Fury to everyone on Berk?" "NO!" Toothless was appalled by the very idea. "I am worried about you, Vikings ride dragons and I couldn't stand to see you have a rider—" "You really think I'd let that happen?" Eletra interjected, "No, I don't think you would. Right now you're confused, in a daze, and trying to learn about your new home; how would calling massive amounts of unwanted attention from dragons or Vikings help you?"

Eletra thought about it, "So, you're doing it to protect me, it has nothing to do with you being the last Night Fury? Eletra asked trying to clarify things in her mind. "Yes, I do want to show you off at some point, but now is a terrible time." Eletra felt a warmth in the pit of her stomach at this remark, she tried to look offended but failed. Changing the subject, Eletra spoke again "so; it snows here I assume?" Toothless was confused why she'd asked such an obvious question but obliged. "It does, why did you ask such a question?" "Well, I thought it would be a good idea to find a cave for us before it starts to snow." She replied with an equally obvious answer. Toothless looked stunned. "how could I forgot such an important matter?" Toothless thought before looking back at Eletra, "I take it you've been exploring and scouting one out?" "a little, I was going to continue searching once we'd finished talking." With this statement, Toothless stood, "I should see what Hiccup is up to, maybe he is making me a new tailfin." They touched muzzles, and Toothless flew off leaving Eletra to go cave hunting.

In the forge, Hiccup had started sketching out an improved and previously abandoned version of Toothless's tailfin. He had thought about the autonomous tailfin he'd make the first year dragons and Vikings shared celebrated Snoggletog together; it allowed Toothless independence from Hiccup and total control over his flying again. Much to Hiccup's surprise, he'd used it once and promptly destroyed it; he hoped this time would be different. "Hiccup, c'mon you got orders ta fill," Gobber said impatiently near the front of the forge. After Hiccup had escaped from the Forge a bit later with his sketchbook, he sat on a grassy spot in the sun fleshing out his idea. "I thought you'd gotten lost again" Hiccup flinched and looked up to see Astrid smiling at him as she climbed off Stormfly. "I'm not living that down anytime soon am I" Hiccup muttered to himself, just loud enough for Astrid to hear. "Not if I can help it" Astrid teased as she leaned down giving Hiccup a peck on the cheek lying down to look at the sky. "How's Toothless? I haven't seen him since we got back to Berk. Is he okay?" She asked sitting up to look at Hiccup. "The strange thing is, I haven't seen him since we got back either. I don't know how he's doing, I removed what remained of his saddle and tailfin before attaching a half-finished tailfin I'd abandoned, but after that, he just disappeared." He said a worried expression washing over him.

Astrid was just as worried but unsure what to say, changed the subject. "What's this?" Hiccup gave her a funny look as he looked the charcoal sketch and then back to her. "I still need to make all new riding gear for Toothless and a new tail-fin so he can fly." Astrid detected a pane of guilt in his voice but said nothing. "I thought that after what happened, Toothless might be willing to fly on his own now. With my new duties, I haven't flown with him as much as Toothless needs, without me he stays grounded. That isn't fair to him." Hiccup had, without Astrid realizing it, sank into a sulk of guilt and depression. Astrid looked to find Hiccup lying on his back staring at the sky, his face scrunched as if trying to stop tears from rolling down his cheeks. "What are you going to do about it?" Astrid wasn't one to tolerate self-pity for any length of time. "I told you, make a new tailfin that will allow Toothless to fly by himself." Hiccup gestured frustratedly at the charcoal sketch sitting up once more. "And..?" Astrid asked trying to lead his thoughts, "and what? I told you." Hiccup had changed positions again and was staring at the paper. Astrid's patience was at an end, she grabbed Hiccup but the shoulder and turned him to face her. "Hiccup, I don't know what's happened to you, but you need to snap out of it." Astrid shook Hiccup, grabbed his face and looked him in the eyes. "I know the real Hiccup is in there somewhere, the Hiccup I know doesn't let anything stand in his way, not me, not Drago, not even generations of Viking tradition. This behavior is not you Hiccup." Astrid got up, walked over to Stormfly who'd been resting and departed. Hiccup just sat there for a moment too shocked to move. Once Hiccup had recovered from the unexpected pep talk, he mulled over what she'd said in his mind before returning to his sketches.


	17. Chapter 17

Ch.17

Night had fallen, and Hiccup was worried, he'd not seen Toothless since landing back on Berk. "Why is he hiding?" Hiccup would not find out where Toothless was hiding until Snoggletog. Hiccup did not dwell on why Toothless was avoiding him long as he quickly fell asleep trying to finish the final batch of sketches of new riding gear he needed to make. Hiccup awoke the next morning feeling refreshed, but soon the questions and worries of the last several days came back to him. He sighed and reached to attach his prosthetic that rested next to his bed, "I'm sorry Toothless, I didn't want to leave you the first time." Hiccup believed that Toothless resented that he'd left and come back for him. "Hiccup, what brings you here?" Gobber said surprised to see Hiccup on a day he regularly spent with the other dragon trainers thinking up various ways to test their skill. "Uh…I've..got some things I need to attend to.." Hiccup said backing away from Gobber and into his small enclosed workshop area. Gobber looked on for a seconds before shrugging and returning to his work.

Inside his workshop Hiccup unfolded the completed plans for Toothless's autonomous tailfin, and an idea he'd thought up after Astrid had slapped some sense back into him. "I wonder if I could fireproof his tailfin so he wouldn't be so easily crippled. Maybe if I dried the leather out and replaced the water with a fireproof substance? What would even have a chance of working? Hiccup looked around, and then he saw them. Dragon teeth, Gobber had wanted to keep them to study the properties of dragon teeth and how they decay. "Of course! That's it!" Hiccup gasped his forehead in amazement. "if I could somehow grind this up into a powder and then mix it with Monstrous Nightmare saliva, I might be able to replicate the fireproof surface of a dragon." Hiccup said thinking out loud. Gobber, who'd heard this, was not too keen on his dragon teeth collection being ground to a powder for a tailfin but said nothing.

Over the next several days Hiccup created the mechanisms for the improved tailfin and began to size the leather accordingly. Toothless was eager to help any way he could. Hiccup was careful not to burn or damage the leather as he dried it out. Once he'd finished crafting the mechanics of the autonomous tailfin, he moved on to attempting to fireproof the tailfin. Something Toothless hadn't understood when Hiccup explained it to him. It took another day for Hiccup to tediously smashed, bashed, and chip away at the teeth. Ultimately, he found it most successful to have Toothless crush them into little bits. This was the last method Hiccup tried in hopes of success after a string of failures and broken forge tools Gobber insist hiccup repair.

Once He'd collected enough broken bits of dragon teeth, he set off getting the next item, Monstrous Nightmare saliva. "You owe me a favor now. I don't want to reach into a dragon's mouth like that again." Snotlout said handing Hiccup a pale of watery goo. Hiccup looked at the saliva, and his face soured a bit. "it's a deal." Once Hiccup gathered what he needed, he mixed the now powdery teeth dust, in with a hot mixture of dragon saliva and water. At first, he didn't add water but found it difficult to stir, and the water did boil out before he cooled the solution. When it was bubbling, and the water was leaving, the solution turned from a murky clear to a dirty opaque white. It had a decidedly rancid smell that both Gobber and Hiccup hadn't expected. It showed up shortly after the water left. Letting it cool, Hiccup worked on repairing the forge tools he'd broken trying to smash dragon teeth.

Not wanting to apply an experimental material on the carefully prepared leather only to find it didn't work. Hiccup decided to test his fireproofing liquid on some scraps of leather and compare it to one without the solution when faced with fire. Toothless was no longer waiting outside the forge, so Hiccup had to find another dragon to help him. Outside Hiccup placed the substance on one scrap and none on the second before instructing Gobber's dragon to hit them with fire. Hiccup looked at the two pieces of leather a minute later once the fire had died. One scrap was coated white, untouched where the liquid had been, while the other scrap smoldered and fell apart. "IT WORKED! This is awesome!" Before applying the fireproof solution to the dry leather, Hiccup added a dash of black pigment to match Toothless's scales. It took Hiccup a long time to rub and saturate the leather with the fireproof solution. Finally, it moved like natural leather, if only a touch stiffer. Hiccup affixed the leather to the rest of the tailfin assembly before allowing it an entire day to cure and ensure it was set. When Hiccup was sure it had sat long enough, he went to find Toothless to give him his new tailfin.

Toothless was resting peacefully beside Eletra when he heard a noise, twigs snapping and leaves crunching. "Wha? Hey, you woke me from my dream." Eletra said upset as Toothless's wing brushed against her muzzle. "Sorry, I heard something outside, I was going to investigate" Toothless looked at Eletra apologetically. "You couldn't have let me sleep while you checked out what you heard." Eletra was just frustrated that she'd been woken up without any good reason. "I'll try and be more careful next time; you can go back to sleep now if you want." Eletra lay her head back down and closed her eyes as Toothless climbed out of the recessed cave they'd claimed as their own. Toothless did not see anything suspicious, and the sound had stopped, Toothless was hoping it might've been Hiccup as he'd been helping him create a new tailfin and it had been several days since arriving back on Berk. Toothless did not want to leave Eletra out of fear something might happen to his new mate. Toothless listened but didn't see anything that would peak his curiosity and urge him to search beyond a casual scan of the surroundings. Eletra had fallen back asleep when Toothless reentered their cave. Toothless looked at his mate bathed in the shadows created by the streaks of light in the cave from the afternoon sun. "What a beautiful creature" Toothless thought as he lay down beside her, content to remain idle and lazy for the time being.

Hiccup had searched everywhere he thought Toothless might be and still couldn't find his dragon. "Where is he? Why is he hiding?" Hiccup thought to himself after checking the storage room in the dragon academy. By this time, the evening was starting to set in with the sun beginning to sink closer to the horizon. Hiccup turned to head to his house only to find Toothless waiting behind him in the training academy. He flinched upon seeing his dragon appear without any warning. "There you are, I hope you aren't avoiding me out of frustration. I've finished your tailfin." Hiccup said hugging his dragon briefly before walking out of the academy Toothless following close behind. At the forge, Hiccup presented Toothless with his new autonomous tailfin. "It took me a few days to complete so please don't destroy this one." Toothless scoffed at the color choice, with the red tail fin he could easily see the condition of the prosthetic. Hiccup attached it and stepped away. "Try it, how is it?" Toothless was puzzled how Hiccup expected him to fly without any saddle or way to operate the tailfin but he humored Hiccup all the same. Hiccup had put a lot of thought into this new version. "WHAT!?" Toothless was shocked when it mirrored his real tailfin perfectly. "I know, I know, I could've let you kept the one I removed, but I made improvements to this one. I made this one so I can take control when we go flying but you can fly whenever you like now."

Toothless looked at Hiccup's pleading expression and didn't smash the tailfin into the ground. "This is going to be very useful, how am I ever going to repay Hiccup? He continues to do the nicest things for me." Toothless looked at the tailfin again and gave Hiccup one of his classic grins. "Ah, whew, I was afraid you'd be mad at me for making another tailfin that you can control," Hiccup said relieved. Toothless was already busy thinking up possibilities that he could use this for. He was roused from his thoughts by Hiccup excitedly talking about how he created the tailfin. "…one of the cool things about this tailfin is that I found a way to keep it from being damaged by fire." This statement had Toothless trying to remember if Hiccup had mentioned how he'd accomplished such a feat. "It should work, I'm not sure a Night Fury blast would damage it or not, probably best not to find out." Hiccup was thinking aloud, Toothless before Hiccup even knew what'd happened sent a small stream of plasma at the new tail, amazingly, a few flames licked the surface of the leather but went out after a few seconds. The tail itself was undamaged and not burnt. Toothless was impressed and excited that Hiccup had finally addressed the biggest weakness to a leather tailfin; the ability to be set on fire. "I've got to go show this to Eletra" Toothless grinned at Hiccup again and scurried off the new tailfin looking like it'd been there all the time. Hiccup smiled before walking to his house to give Valka the excellent news.


	18. Chapter 18

Ch.18

Eletra was surprised when she awoke to darkness instead of warm sunshine filling her cave. Then she remembered, "right, I'm on Berk." She sighed. Briefly, she had liked waking up with the sun and sitting in its warm rays at dawn; the feeling, however, soon passed as she felt Toothless stir beside her. "I'd miss him." She thought before clearing her mind of her former home where so many dragons had died. Eletra raised her head and began to move, her tail brushed something, and she whipped her head back fearful of what it might be. It turned out to only be Toothless's tail, "so jumpy, not yet accustomed to living with another dragon." She deemed observing this small action. Something, however, did catch her attention. "Didn't Toothless only have one black tailfin? I'm sure he only had one, no I couldn't be mistaken." Eletra stood up and proceeded to ensure it wasn't her imagination or a dream she was witnessing. "Do you mind?" Eletra jumped back surprised and embarrassed. She forced herself to look at Toothless's gaze. His expression was a mixture of annoyance and bemusement. "I-I" Eletra tried to speak but couldn't force the words out.

"I know my tail is attractive, but I didn't think it required inspecting." "But you tailfins" Eletra blurted out before she could stop herself, "What about them?" The fact Toothless was not telling her outright about his tailfins and instead of making her ask loads of questions frustrated her; this was on top of the fact he knew and even referred to them in the plural. "You-you, you only have one! Where did the second one come from!?" She took no joy in forcing the sentence out, but she could think of no other way to express what she was thinking as clearly. Toothless looked at his tailfins and smiled knowingly before turning back to face her. "Hiccup made me a new one; he finished it yesterday afternoon. When I got back, you were asleep, and I didn't think to wake you. Eletra was processing what he said, and it was just starting to make sense when a thought occurred to her. "Wait, if that's a new tail fin then where is all that other…stuff, you had on as well?" she said aloud. "Hiccup made this tailfin in such a way that I can use it like I would my real tailfin." Eletra's eyes widened, and she was genuinely shocked by such a generous and loving act. "You must mean a lot to him." Eletra said much softer almost as if in awe, "indeed. He means a lot to me as well. Any other questions?" Toothless asked his stomach beginning to growl louder. "No, at least we can eat together now, I mean with your new tailfin there, we can eat and fly together now." Toothless agreed overjoyed at the concept; the two dragons soon left their cave to eat.

Only a few weeks later, Hiccup was discussing the best way for Berk to prepare the shelters for a drastic increase in dragon population with winter upon them "We've finished weatherizing the open stables areas to accommodate the new dragons until a more permanent location is cleared." A Viking was telling Hiccup as he stood at the large firepit in the Great Hall surrounded by the other Vikings. Hiccup looked around about to speak again, "where is Astrid? She was supposed to give progress on the snow clearing efforts." There was no answer, not a minute later though, Astrid pushed her way past the crowd to reach the table opposite of Hiccup. "Glad you showed up, How is the snow clearing proceeding?" "Stormfly and I left Scales and Poison to finish removing the ice from the exposed barn areas. All other Deadly Nadder teams reported back in. " "Great work, had Snotlout returned from patrol yet?" "Yeah, I think he was getting Hookfang his dinner. Should be along shortly." Hiccup nodded and moved to the next issue he planned to discuss. Once the meeting had ended, and the crowd had dispersed Hiccup stood staring into the fire worriedly his hands clasped together resting on the table.

"Something the matter Hiccup?" It was Astrid, tiny bits of snow and ice had stuck to her furs and braided hair and they glimmered against the firelight. "Milady, you look nice." Astrid smiled but brushed it aside trying to sort out why Hiccup looked worried. "Thanks, what's wrong?" she asked again. "It's Toothless." Astrid sighed and leaned against the fire ring. "You've had a lot of trouble with Toothless since we brought him back to Berk." Hiccup, still avoiding eye contact, sighed; "I don't see him around as much, not just how he used to lounge nearby where I was, I just haven't seen him anywhere. It worries me, Toothless is a very social dragon." "Hiccup, Toothless does what he wants, you know that. Besides don't you still fly together?" "He seems distracted half of the time when we do go flying." "So what is it you're saying then? It sounds like you're jealous." "What?! No! I'm not jealous, I'm—it's just Toothless hasn't been himself since we crashed on that island." Hiccup put his head in his hands. "You think Toothless didn't want to come back to Berk? What could make Toothless pick being alone on an island over everything he has here?" Astrid said just above a whisper in an almost accusing tone. Hiccup having composed himself looked at Astrid, realization creeping over his face; "of course. OF COURSE! It makes sense now!" it was Astrid's turn to be confused, "Hiccup? Are you ok?" "Don't you see? It all fits, I can't believe I didn't see it sooner." "HICCUP" Hiccup stopped and looked at Astrid, he quickly realized she had no idea what he was getting so excited about and promptly stopped to explain.

"You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?" he said blankly. "Ah, right, when I was on that island before you found me, I thought I saw Toothless, but it wasn't Toothless." This development stunned Astrid. "Hiccup, do you know what the ramifications of what you're saying are? If you saw a Night Fury, other than Toothless, then there could be even more out there. He might not be that last one after all." This line of thinking hadn't occurred to him yet and only served to add more weight to it in his mind. "It might explain why we crashed at all" Hiccup said thinking aloud again. "What? Hiccup how would that explain why you crashed." "What if Toothless didn't react in time because he was momentarily distracted by the scent of another Night Fury?" "that's—that actually might've happened." Astrid thought to herself, "You might be onto something, but that means it'd have to be a female Night Fury." She stated Hiccup looked back at Astrid confused, "Why female?" she looked at him in disbelief, "you are clueless, Hiccup why would Toothless be distracted by another male Night Fury? Think Hiccup." It took a second to process but once it did he just sat there, his mind blown. It was several minutes before either one spoke again, when Hiccup did finally speak again, it was much more the old excited Hiccup Astrid loved. "This-this is great, we should go investigate, and if there is a female Night Fury, have her come live on Berk. We should get going before the heavy storms arrive." It was at this point Astrid thoughts rapidly applied the brakes. "Hiccup wait," Astrid grasped one of his arms. "We don't know anything about Night Fury courtship or…anything. What if Toothless doesn't want us to know? I think we should stay away, for Toothless's sake." Hiccup was initially agitated by the idea of being content with their assumptions, but once she'd finished, he begrudgingly agreed. "For Toothless's sake."


	19. Chapter 19

Ch.19

A few days after Hiccup and Astrid had decided that Toothless had discovered a second Night Fury, Eletra began to grow sluggish. It would take more energy to fly than usual, and she couldn't even fathom performing aerobatics. "I'm going to stay here for now," Eletra said exhausted when Toothless entered the cave returning from a flight with Hiccup. "Eletra? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Toothless asked concerned for his mate. "No, I'm not hurt, just really tired, could you please bring back some breakfast? I don't think I could handle getting it right now." Toothless nodded and left to find his mate breakfast. At the village, Toothless found Stormfly busily clearing a path to Astrid's front door which had jammed in the early morning snow. "How are you faring?" Stormfly asked taking a breath. "Quite well, have you seen Eletra yet?" Stormfly nodded, "briefly, she was hanging upside down at the time, I don't think she saw me. She looks like you. I didn't want to disturb her she looked asleep. Speaking of which how is she?"

"She's been doing great, adjusting to Berk fine, keeping her a secret from most of Berk has allowed her freedom to explore and familiarize herself without being asked a bunch of questions. Recently, however, she's become sluggish and tires easily. She isn't sick; I can still see the fire in eyes thankfully." Stormfly blasted the last bit of snow blocking Astrid's doorway and thought for a moment. "Make sure she keeps her energy and spirits up, oh and if she's hungry get her food." Toothless missing the hint gladly accepted the advice. " how've you been Stormfly?" Stormfly smiled "Fairly well, Aspen, one of my younglings is visiting me, I'm happy about that. My younglings all moved away or avoid me, so Aspen is visiting me is quite nice." Toothless agreed, "isn't she the reserved one that looks bit like you?" "yep. Astrid should be up any minute; you can stick around if you want, but won't be much to do. Hiccup should be around somewhere." With that Toothless departed, in search of a significant portion of food to swipe. 

Toothless returned with a basket full of fish to find Eletra asleep. "why is she so tired?" He thought as he dragged the basket over to Eletra inside the cave. "Eletra, I brought breakfast" She stirred, opening one eye making an effort to move. "Thank you Toothless; I don't know why I'm so exhausted, I'll stretch my wings later today." Eletra ate everything in the basket before Toothless could get a chance. Toothless didn't mind as he'd eaten before his flight with Hiccup that morning. Eletra continued to be at a loss for energy for two weeks. She made an effort to move around and stretch every day but with the arrival of massive snowstorms on Berk elected to stay in the cave until she felt like moving. Then just when she was beginning to think the worst, her energy came back in mounds. She awoke early, before Toothless, which had become uncommon in the past few weeks, only to find snow filling the entrance to their cave. Feeling the need to stretch her wings, she quickly and quietly cleared away the snow and took to the sky.

The next day, Toothless left the warm afternoon sun by the forge to check on Eletra. He was surprised to find her not there, the cave was, however, not empty. Toothless noticed that the basket he'd neglected to return was carefully placed where he'd usually sit. The top edge of a fur hung over the side like it'd been stuffed in and was holding something. He moved closer and nudged the basket, nothing, looking inside the basket he saw the that the fur was covering something, but he wasn't sure what. Carefully he pulled off the fur only to jump back in surprise, his eyes completely dilated. Inside the basket was a single shiny midnight black egg. Toothless couldn't think, his thoughts were a blur, emotions, sounds, and feelings blended in his mind creating an impenetrable fog of sheer joy. After a few moments, his mind settled, and his thoughts once again flowed clearly. "I'm going to be a father!" Toothless was ecstatic. "I'm going to be a father," he thought again, this time worried. "how am I supposed to be a father?" Any doubts Toothless had melted away when he gazed at the egg again, his egg. Without a second thought, he carefully removed the egg from the basket to properly care for it. He breathed a small stream of heated air over the egg before allowing his body heat to warm the egg as he cradled it I his front paws with it resting against his chest.

"TOOTHLESS!" Toothless woke with a start and stared into the eyes of a very panicked, and very angry Eletra. "What happened to our egg!?" "Our egg" those words echoed in his mind, the joyous feeling he had upon finding the egg returning. "WELL?" Toothless was brought back to reality by the smallest of fireballs on his muzzle. "WHERE. IS. OUR. EGG." Toothless moved his head revealing the egg comfortably nestled on his front paws. "Whew, Toothless, do NOT do that again—ever." "Where were you?! You left our egg in a basket with furs, and I couldn't just leave it there." After another moment of tension both dragons gave in, and Eletra sat down next to Toothless who quickly relinquished the egg to Eletra. "why did you leave our egg alone?" Toothless finally asked once Eletra had situated herself with the egg comfortably nestled on her front paws. "I was going to get another fur, but where I went back to where I found the first one, the others were gone." Toothless nodded before asking the big question he'd overlooked so far. "when did it happen?" "Shortly after you left, it would explain why I was so exhausted the past few weeks. I'm guessing it'll hatch in about a week." Toothless was overjoyed, "I must thank Hiccup again for wanting to try that ridiculous flying suit of his." "I guess this cements that we're mates," Eletra said before glancing at their egg again.


	20. Chapter 20

Ch.20

A week had passed since Toothless's joyous discovery of the egg, and it remained unhatched. "No movement I take it?" "Toothless you've asked me that at least once a day for the past three days, you'll know when our egg hatches." Changing the subject Toothless thought about the upcoming Viking holiday. "I'd like it if you went with me to Snoggletog." Eletra looked at Toothless puzzled, "What? Sn-ogg-le-tog?" "It's something the Vikings do every year; it's a big deal. I've never quite figured it out, but they think it's a big deal." "I see, I thought you were trying to keep me hidden? I'm pretty sure bringing me to Snoggletog will make that difficult." Toothless grinned, "I only wanted to keep you hidden until you'd had time to adjust to Berk, plus I did say I wanted to show you off, I still want to do that. The Vikings do need to find out about you at some point, and this seems like the best place." Eletra was flattered that Toothless wanted to show her off but unsure how the other dragons would take to her. "If I go, I'm going to stay close to you, and our hatchling needs to be at least a few days old first." Toothless smiled, "agreed."

The next day Toothless was gone for most of the day helping Hiccup with Snoggletog decorating, and Eletra was left to tend to their egg. Eletra was surprised by how much knowledge she'd acquired from her mother on the subject. This thought spurred more thoughts about her mother, and soon she was engrossed in thinking about her. "Hello there little one, you can open your eyes, it's safe." A mass of blurry images and kind words filled Eletra's head as she remembered, for the first time in ages, her first moments in life. The memory soon faded and dropped her into another memory. "Eletra, do you know who that Night Fury over there on the rock is?" she looked at her mother, a striking Night Fury, piercing yellow eyes with a deep purple coat. Eletra chirped excitedly. "That's your father. The leader of our clan, Maloven1." Eletra looked on at her father in awe, an ashen Night Fury with grey-green eyes. "Majestic isn't he" Her mother stated before pulling her hatchling away back into their cave. Eletra chirped, she wasn't finished looking at her father, "calm down little one, you'll see him again. It's time for you to eat."

The memory all at once skipped to that night. "Is she asleep Eclipse?" "I don't know; she wanted to see you, so it's possible she's awake." Maloven walked over and nudged his hatchling, she looked at him and chirped placing her front paws on his muzzle, and he smiled. That memory would soon fade as well, replaced by yet another memory. "MALOVEN!" Eletra shuttered remembering one of the more unpleasant memories as her father took apart a Night Fury who'd made advances towards her mother. Eletra did not see anything but the screams could not be escaped. She remembered him coming in after he'd won, a bleeding claw wound across his neck. "Why did you shout at me Eclipse? I wasn't going to lose." Eclipse looked at her mate, "I was worried about you." "How is Eletra?" he asked, "She heard the screaming, you should comfort her." The memory faded as her father comforted her "it's alright, Eletra, I won't let anything bad happen to you or Eclipse." Eletra felt a nudge but ignored it, but when she was nudged again, she opened her eyes to see Toothless staring at her. "Eletra, are you ok?" The dream having dissipated Eletra smiled, "Yes, I'm doing great." Toothless moved to sit down next to his mate as the late afternoon sun illuminated the cave and Eletra realized just how long she'd been asleep.

Only minutes later the egg began to quiver and shake, Eletra checked the egg to ensure she didn't imagine it. Carefully she moved the egg to the discarded fur in front of the two Night Furies and watched. Toothless was puzzled, "what are you doing?" "just watch, our egg is hatching." A few seconds later, glowing blue cracks could be seen popping up all over the egg's surface. A small explosion momentarily covered the fur in smoke. It took only a few seconds for it to clear and there on the fur was a jet black baby Night Fury. The newborn Night Fury was lying on the fur ear flaps pressed firmly against its head. It was quivering out of fright from its dramatic entrance into the world. Both Eletra and Toothless's hearts melted upon laying eyes on their hatchling. "He's adorable" Eletra cooed in delight. "How do you know our hatchling is a 'he'?" Toothless whispered at Eletra, "The tailfins. On newborn females they are rounded, they lose their roundness as they age. Newborn males always have the same tailfin shape."

Toothless was admiring his new son when Eletra spoke up. "Hello there little one, you can open your eyes, it's safe." The little Night Fury stopped quivering, and his ear flaps perked up at this new sensation. He struggled to open his eyes, it took him a second before they fluttered open and his brain was flooded with this new sensory input. It was a wash of strange colors and blurry objects. As his vision slowly focused, One particular object grabbed his attention and mesmerized him, it was a fuzzy black shape, with two green orbs, one on either side. Eletra smiled at her new son gleefully. The little dragon's vision could not remove the fuzziness around the edges of his mother, but this hardly bothered him. For all the newborn hatchling knew, fuzzy edges were normal. Eletra lowered her head so he could stare into her eyes. His eyes were almost an exact duplicate of Toothless's, save a few hints of grey at the edges. "I'll call you, Alchemy." She said gleefully, but neither dragon could be sure if the little Night Fury understood his name was Alchemy, let alone who or what he was.

Toothless retracted his teeth and carefully picked up Alchemy in his mouth. This greatly frightened the little dragon briefly as he had a whole new perspective to adjust to. Alchemy didn't have long to gaze awestruck at this new look on his still new surroundings, Toothless gently set his hatchling on his mates head. "Thank you; I was about to ask you to do that." Alchemy was continually amazed and overwhelmed as he took everything in. Just when the little Night Fury thought he'd seen it all, he turned and saw another black object very similar to the first one he'd seen. His eyes widen in awe at the large orbs that stared lovingly down at him. Within minutes, the excitement used what little energy Alchemy had in him, and he yawned before falling asleep on Eletra's head, his tail dangling off to one side. "Toothless, he's adorable," Eletra whispered to her mate careful not to wake Alchemy. "Do you want to move him behind your earflaps?" "yes, let's do that." It took some doing, but Toothless managed to position Alchemy behind Eletra's earflaps without waking him. "How long before Snoggletog again? Might be fun now that our hatchling isn't inside an egg anymore."

The big Snoggletog celebration happened three days later, in that time Alchemy had done very little, he'd woken up for a short time and found his vision had sharpened, everything was new and different again. He munched down two regurgitated fish and promptly fell back asleep. He'd also begun to chirp, a precursor to speaking. Alchemy had yet to realize he had wings and a tail, much less how to use them. At the Great hall, Astrid had engaged Hiccup in conversation regarding how to potentially deal with what she dubbed "stealth ice" which was the refrozen water on the ground after the Deadly Nadders cleared a path thru the snow. "You're just trying to distract me from the fact that Toothless didn't show up, everyone is here with their dragons, except me." Everyone in the great hall suddenly got very quiet. Both Hiccup and Astrid noticed this and upon turning around got the surprise of their lives. Toothless was standing inside, closely guarding another Night Fury, who looked very familiar to Hiccup. Astrid put an arm around Hiccup and kissed him on the cheek. "You were right Hiccup, Toothless did find another Night Fury, except he brought her to Berk instead of having us bring her."

Hiccup didn't know what to say. He was just so stunned to see another Night Fury, especially a female. "I—I, To—I—bu—" his mind was blown "Toothless this is awesome!" It was at this point that the Vikings began to return to their activities or conversations. Valka came over, glad to finally meet this new Night Fury, "hello." Eletra was startled that this was same Viking she'd met with Cloudjumper months ago. "I don't see what all the fuss is Toothless, or did you not figure that out either?" "I haven't figured it out either." Eletra felt movement from her ear flaps and started to worry. "Toothless Alchemy is waking up, what do we do?" "Relax, nobody will even get near him. At most Hiccup might fall over in shock." As if on Que, Alchemy stirred but the abundance of strange smells and new noises frightened him. "CHIRP!" Toothless and Eletra stood still for a second, the entire hall had stopped and was once again staring at the Night Furies. "Did I hear what I thought I heard?" Astrid asked Hiccup who was frozen with shock. Valka smiled having expected a hatchling to appear at some point. Shortly after Alchemy had announced himself unknowingly, both Night Furies sat in a corner observing the festivities. That night Eletra ended up using Toothless's head as a pillow as their tail intertwined back at their cave. "Thank you Toothless for all you've done." She said before drifting off to sleep.

1Maloven –Mal-Low-ven

What? the story is over? But I want to read more...AAUGH! Fear not, for if you go to Archive of our own and find me (same username), I have a "story" that is dedicated to unused/ deleted content from my story. It's definitely worth the look if you want to see all the avenues (and excessive drama) the story could've used instead.


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